Spools

Spools routines: schedule messages for an agent

Create weekly, interval, or one-time routines, check the timezone, pause schedules, run a message now, and review unattended work safely.

Before you start

Open the account menu → Agents and select an existing agent. Spools is in early access and only appears for accounts that have been given access; a paid plan alone does not enable it.

A routine is a saved message delivered to one agent on a schedule. It uses that agent’s model and enabled capabilities and the account’s normal credits. Review instructions and tool switches before leaving it unattended. MCP calls that are not read-only can pause for approval; a scheduled task is not guaranteed to complete without you.

Check your browser/device timezone. The creation form displays the detected timezone below the schedule inputs and saves it with the routine; it has no separate timezone picker. The app detects it when it loads: after changing the device timezone, reload the app and check the displayed zone before creating a routine. Changing your device’s timezone does not update existing routines.

When to use this

Use a routine for a repeatable, bounded task: a draft report, a review checklist, or a periodic summary. Keep the output and data scope specific. Ask for reviewable drafts rather than unattended purchases, publication, or messages to other people.

Use the ordinary agent chat for a one-off immediate request. Use Run now to send a saved routine message manually without waiting for its scheduled occurrence. Neither option guarantees immediate completion.

Steps

Open the agent’s conversation and select Routines in the header. Review any existing routines before creating another for the same task.
Select New routine. Enter Name and Message. Describe what to examine, what output to produce, and what must not be changed. The message is sent as written; it is not a role-template variable form.
Under When, choose one of the actual options:
- Some days: select one or more weekday buttons and a Time. This is the weekly schedule. For a daily schedule, select all seven days; there is no separate Daily option.
- Every N minutes: enter an interval from 5 to 1,440 minutes. This is elapsed-time repetition, not a promise of a fixed local clock time each day.
- Once: choose a future Date and time in the displayed timezone.
Check the timezone text, selected days, and time before selecting Create routine. A newly created routine is enabled. Review the listed schedule and Next: occurrence afterwards; displayed dates are formatted using the browser’s locale and local time, which can differ from the routine’s stored timezone after travel or a device change.
Use Pause to disable future scheduled occurrences and Resume to enable them again. Resuming recalculates the next occurrence; it is not a replay of every missed occurrence. A one-time date that is already past cannot be resumed as a future schedule.
Select Run now on the routine card if you want its saved message sent now. This can also be used for a paused routine, provided its previous run has finished. The dialog closes and its new turn appears in the agent conversation. Manual execution does not replace the recurring schedule or make completion immediate.
Review the conversation for progress, Waiting for your approval, errors, results, and charges. Use the usual approval controls or Stop for that run. Pause on the routine is not a stop control for work already queued or running.
To change a routine’s name, message, schedule, or timezone from the current UI, pause it and create a replacement with the desired settings, then delete the old routine after checking the replacement. Paused routines still count toward the quota. If there is no room for both, keep your own copy of the old name, message and schedule before deleting it to make room. The dialog does not currently offer a form to edit an existing routine. Use the delete control and confirm when removing a routine; deletion does not undo or cancel an already-created run.

Worked example

Illustrative exercise, not an executed run: create “Monday draft review” for a Marketing agent. Write: “Summarise the recent successful work in this agent conversation. Produce three draft next steps and list missing context. Do not send messages or publish.” Select Some days → Mon, set 09:00, check the displayed timezone, and create it.

If you choose to try the saved request manually, Run now creates a real, potentially billable task in your account; this guide has not done so. Read its output before trusting the recurring task. To make it weekdays rather than Mondays only, pause the old routine and recreate it with Mon–Fri selected.

What happens next

The background worker checks for due routines and queues their messages without requiring your tab to stay open. A scheduled time is the target occurrence, not a guaranteed start or completion time: worker availability, queued work, model latency, tools, and approvals can delay it.

If that routine’s previous run is still queued, running, or waiting for approval, the next scheduled occurrence is skipped instead of building a backlog. Check the card’s last-error message and the conversation. A one-time routine has no further scheduled occurrences after its attempt; paused status does not by itself prove the attempt succeeded.

Recurring schedules advance past missed occurrences rather than promising to run every missed interval. Weekly schedules use the saved timezone’s local clock time. Daylight-saving transitions can shift their UTC time and make some local times ambiguous or nonexistent. Check the next occurrence around clock changes and recreate the routine if needed; do not rely on exactly-once delivery at an ambiguous local time. There is no promised email completion or approval notification: return to the app to review work.

Cost and limitations

Scheduled and manual runs use the same model, search, and computer billing rules as chat tasks. Frequent schedules can repeatedly consume credits. A task that pauses, fails, or is stopped can still have partial charges and external effects. An occurrence blocked by credits or model availability does not guarantee a later catch-up attempt.

Routine quotas depend on the plan and apply across your routines, not just the current agent. Names allow 80 characters and messages 5,000. The shortest supported interval is five minutes and the longest is 1,440 minutes. Do not confuse a short interval with guaranteed throughput. History supplied to an agent is limited; a routine is not an automatic full-account audit or a complete archive of every previous report.

Troubleshooting

No Daily option: use Some days and select all seven days. For weekdays, select only Mon–Fri.
Create is disabled: enter a name and message, select at least one weekday, provide a date for Once, or keep the interval within the permitted range.
“That date has already passed”: choose a future date and confirm the displayed timezone. A past one-time routine must be replaced for future scheduling.
The previous run has not finished: inspect the agent chat, including approval waits. The next occurrence can be skipped, and Run now is refused while that previous run is unfinished.
Paused the routine but it is still working: Pause controls future scheduling. Use Stop in the agent conversation for the existing run.
Cannot find Edit: this dialog currently supports creating, pausing/resuming, running now, and deleting, not editing existing content. Create a replacement rather than looking for an unsupported control.
The next time looks different after travel or a clock change: distinguish the saved schedule timezone from the browser’s date display and verify the next occurrence.
No email arrived: completion and approval notifications by email are not promised. Check the routine card and agent conversation directly.