Routines

A routine is an agent job that runs on its own: on a schedule, such as every morning at 08:00, or when something happens on your site, such as a post being published. Open Agent Builder → Routines to see every routine in one place, check when it will run next, test it, pause it, and read its last 20 runs.

Routines use the same approval gate as chat and Tasks. Low-risk steps run automatically. Anything medium- or high-risk pauses under Tasks → Waiting on you until you approve it, and your approval rules apply too.

Overview

Each row on the Routines screen shows:

  • Agent: the agent that does the work
  • Trigger: a schedule (hourly, twice daily, daily or weekly) or a site event
  • Skill: an optional skill the agent follows each time it runs
  • Next run: shown in your site’s timezone
  • Last status: completed, error or skipped, and On / Off

A routine runs as the administrator who created it. If that account is removed or loses the right to manage agents, the routine stops, and you get a notification instead of an unexpected run.

Common tasks

  • Add a routine. Click Add routine, pick the agent, write what it should do or choose a skill, then choose a schedule or an event.
  • Test run. Runs the routine once right now, even while it is paused, and shows the run in Tasks. Use it to check a routine before you rely on it.
  • Pause and resume. Pause stops the routine completely, and editing it keeps it paused. Resume schedules the next run one full interval from now, so the routine does not fire the moment you switch it back on.
  • History. Shows the last 20 runs with status, duration and tokens, each linked to its details in Tasks.

FAQ

Why did my routine not run on time? Routines use WP-Cron, which only runs when someone visits your site. On a quiet site, runs can be late. The Routines screen shows a warning when WP-Cron looks stalled. For reliable timing, add define( 'DISABLE_WP_CRON', true ); to wp-config.php and run wp cron event run --due-now every minute from a real server cron job.

Does a routine cost anything? Each run makes calls to the AI provider you configured, billed by that provider like any chat. Test runs count too.