Cron Scheduler MCP Server

Cron Scheduler MCP Server

MCP server for cron job scheduling with SQLite persistence, retry logic, and structured observability. Let AI agents create, manage, and monitor scheduled tasks through a clean tool interface.

Why This Exists

Most cron libraries are designed for applications to embed. This server exposes cron scheduling as an MCP tool — agents can schedule jobs, monitor execution, retry failures, and query logs without touching the filesystem or crontab directly.

Companion server: System Monitoring MCP for host health metrics. Together they give agents full infrastructure observability and control.

Why This Over mcp-cron?

Feature	cron-scheduler-mcp	mcp-cron
License	MIT	AGPL-3.0
Storage	SQLite (persistent)	In-memory
Retry logic	Configurable retries with backoff	None
Observability	Success rate, avg duration, error trends	None
Systemd integration	Yes	No
Webhook triggers	Yes	No
Tool count	10	3

mcp-cron is AGPL — fine for personal use, problematic for enterprise agents and commercial deployments. This server uses MIT + SQLite persistence + retry logic for production workloads.

Features

• 10 tools: list_jobs, create_job, update_job, delete_job, get_job, run_now, get_status, get_logs, list_executions, pause_resume
• SQLite persistence — jobs survive server restarts
• Retry logic — configurable retry count and delay with attempt tracking
• Structured logs — stdout/stderr capture, duration, exit codes per execution
• Observability — success rate, average duration, error history per job
• Webhook triggers — fire HTTP callbacks on job completion
• MIT license — enterprise-friendly, no copyleft restrictions

Quick Start

npx @supernova123/cron-scheduler-mcp-server

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cron-scheduler": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@supernova123/cron-scheduler-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor / VS Code

Add to your MCP settings (.cursor/mcp.json or equivalent):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cron-scheduler": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@supernova123/cron-scheduler-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

list_jobs

List all scheduled jobs with status, next run time, and last run result.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
enabled	boolean	No	Filter by enabled/disabled status
limit	number	No	Max jobs to return (1-100)

Returns: Array of jobs with id, name, schedule, command, enabled status, next run time, last run result, and aggregate stats (success rate, total runs, avg duration).

create_job

Create a new cron job with a schedule and shell command.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
name	string	Yes	Human-readable job name (1-128 chars)
schedule	string	Yes	Cron expression or interval (see Schedule Formats below)
command	string	Yes	Shell command to execute
enabled	boolean	No	Whether job is enabled (default: true)
retryCount	number	No	Retries on failure, 0-10 (default: 0)
retryDelayMs	number	No	Delay between retries in ms, 0-60000 (default: 1000)
timeoutMs	number	No	Execution timeout in ms, 1000-3600000 (default: 30000)

delete_job

Remove a scheduled job and its entire run history.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
jobId	UUID	Yes	Job ID to delete

run_now

Execute a job immediately, bypassing its schedule. Useful for testing or manual triggers.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
jobId	UUID	Yes	Job ID to execute

Returns: Run result with status, exit code, stdout/stderr (truncated to 2000 chars), and duration.

get_status

Get detailed job status including last run, next run, success rate, average duration, and recent error history.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
jobId	UUID	Yes	Job ID to check

Returns: Full job config, next scheduled run, whether currently running, aggregate stats, and last 10 runs with status/exit code/duration.

get_logs

Get execution logs for a job with full stdout, stderr, duration, and exit code.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
jobId	UUID	Yes	Job ID
limit	number	No	Max runs to return (1-100, default: 20)

pause_resume

Pause or resume a job without deleting it. Paused jobs retain their schedule but won't execute until resumed.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
jobId	UUID	Yes	Job ID to pause/resume
enabled	boolean	Yes	true to resume, false to pause

Schedule Formats

• Cron expressions: Standard 5-field format
  • */5 * * * * — every 5 minutes
  • 0 9 * * 1-5 — weekdays at 9am
  • 30 2 * * 0 — Sundays at 2:30am
• Intervals: Simple duration strings
  • 30s — every 30 seconds
  • 5m — every 5 minutes
  • 1h — every hour

Use Cases

• Infrastructure automation: Schedule health checks, log rotation, cleanup scripts
• Data pipelines: Periodic data pulls, report generation, cache invalidation
• Agent workflows: Let AI agents schedule their own recurring tasks (monitoring, backups, notifications)
• DevOps: Scheduled deployments, canary checks, post-deploy verification
• Testing: Recurring integration tests, smoke checks, performance benchmarks

Configuration

Environment Variable	Default	Description
CRON_SCHEDULER_DB	cron-scheduler.db	SQLite database path (relative to CWD)

Storage

All job definitions and execution history are stored in a SQLite database. The database file persists across server restarts — jobs survive crashes and restarts without re-creation.

License

MIT