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A routine is work Alpha runs on a timetable, even while its session is closed and the session’s machine is asleep. Alpha’s server keeps the clock: for each run it wakes the session, runs the work there with that session’s files, secrets and database, then lets the machine sleep again. For a worked example, follow Post a weekly summary to Slack. A published app has no scheduler of its own, so its periodic jobs belong in a routine too.
The Routines page. Beside a circular-arrows icon, the header reads Routines, with the subtitle Work that runs on its own schedule, even while your sessions are closed, and a New routine button with a plus icon on the right. The summary line reads 1 routine · next run in 5 hr. One row follows: a bot icon, a green dot, the name Ai morning brief and the timetable Every day at 09:00 · Kolkata · next in 5 hr. The row ends with six icon buttons: View session, Run now, Pause, Edit, Remove and Expand.

Each routine row shows its state, its timetable and when it runs next.

If the Routines page says “Routines are not enabled on this Alpha”, routines aren’t turned on for your Alpha. Ask your administrator.

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Which kind of routine do you need?

A routine either runs a command or asks the agent. The agent picks one when it builds the routine, and you can switch under What it does in the edit form.
Not sure? Ask for a command. It’s cheaper and does the same thing on every run, and the agent prefers it unless the work needs reasoning.
Routines belong to your account, not to the session that made them. Each one runs in its home session, the session that created it, and the Routines page lists every routine from all your sessions.

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Create a routine

You describe a routine, and the agent builds it, tests it once and saves it. Start from the Routines page when the work needs nothing from an existing session; it opens a fresh routine session with its own machine.
1

Open the Routines page

Click Routines in the sidebar. With no routines yet, the page opens on a composer with four starter cards: Hacker News digest, Uptime check, Exchange rate log and Weekly summary. A card fills the composer with its prompt for you to edit. Once you have routines, click New routine to bring the composer back above them; Cancel closes it.
The Routines page after clicking New routine. Beside a circular-arrows icon, the header reads Routines, with the subtitle Work that runs on its own schedule, even while your sessions are closed. Below it is a composer with the placeholder What should run, and when? — “Every weekday at 9, send me the top Hacker News stories”, a Cancel button and a dimmed Create routine button with an arrow-up icon. Below are four starter cards in two columns, each with an icon, a label and a schedule in monospace: Hacker News digest, Weekdays · 9:00; Uptime check, Every hour; Exchange rate log, Daily · 18:00; Weekly summary, Mondays · 9:00. Under the starters, the summary line reads 1 routine · next run in 5 hr, above the row Ai morning brief, Every day at 09:00 · Kolkata · next in 5 hr, with its green dot and icon buttons.

Pick a starter, or say what should run and when in your own words.

2

Describe what runs and when

Say what to do, how often, and where the result goes. Click Create routine or press Enter; Shift + Enter adds a new line.Alpha will:
  1. Open a new routine session and write the check as a script in its workspace.
  2. Run the script once by hand and show you the result.
  3. Ask for anything it still needs in a question card, such as the timetable if you didn’t give one, or your time zone when it names a time of day.
  4. Save the routine and tell you what runs and when.
3

Find the routine session in the sidebar

A routine session is an ordinary session marked with a clock in the sidebar. Any session that is home to a routine gets the clock too. The clock is green while a routine is scheduled and pulses while a run is going. It’s grey while the routine is paused or nothing is saved yet. To list only routine sessions, open the sidebar’s Filter, group and sort menu and set Type to Routines.
4

Check the saved card

When the agent saves the routine, the card Routine harbor-weekly-summary saved appears with When, Runs (or Asks the agent) and Next. When it’s the session’s first routine, the session’s Routines tab opens beside the chat.
To give a routine an existing session’s files, secrets or database, ask for it in that session instead: “every Monday at 9, post last week’s bookings to #harbor-staff”. The agent follows the same steps there, and the routine’s home is that session.

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Set the timetable

The timetable lives under How often in the edit form. The line under it spells the timetable out in words and lists the next three runs, or shows in red why the server refused it. Every choice except Once, at a set time and Custom (cron expression) also shows its cron: expression. Daily, weekly and monthly timetables also take Months; none picked means every month. Time zone is the zone the routine’s times are read in. It’s hidden for a plain every-n-minutes or every-n-hours timetable, which runs the same in any zone. A routine runs at most once every 15 minutes (default), because each run wakes a machine. For a command, More options adds Folder (where the command runs, the workspace by default) and Stop after (seconds), which defaults to 600 and goes up to 3600.

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Run, pause and edit a routine

Each row on the Routines page has the same buttons. The session’s Routines tab shows only that session’s routines, without View session. The tab edits routines but doesn’t add them; to add one, ask the agent. Once all of a session’s routines are removed, its tab shows How a routine comes together instead.
Remove deletes the routine and every run’s log, and it can’t be undone. To stop a routine you may want back, Pause it.

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Read a routine’s runs

The row’s dot gives the routine’s state. Each run under Runs gets a chip; click a run to read its whole log, even while the machine sleeps. Alpha keeps the last 50 runs of each routine. An agent run appears in its session’s transcript as Routine run · harbor-inbox-digest. The agent works without asking questions and ends with a short report, which becomes the run’s log. A failed command run posts Routine harbor-uptime: the run failed with Error, Took and the end of the log.

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Why did a run fail or skip?

Open the run to read its reason. A failed or skipped run is never retried; the routine carries on at its next time.

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What are the limits?

The account-wide numbers are also on Limits.

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Who can see and change a routine?

Only you, the owner. People you share a session with never see its Routines tab. The Routines page and the tab can change everything, including what runs. The agent sees every routine on your account from any session. From outside a routine’s home session it can change only the timetable, or pause and resume. For anything else it posts Routine harbor-weekly-summary is changed in its own session with an Open Harbor bookings button. The agent removes a routine only when you ask, and names it first. Deleting a session deletes the routines whose home it is, with their runs. Forking a session doesn’t copy its routines.

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Next steps

Post a weekly summary to Slack

Build harbor-weekly-summary end to end, from connecting Slack to the first run.

Connect an app

Let a routine send email or post to Slack without a key ever appearing in the transcript.

Sleep, wake and reset

What a sleeping machine keeps, so a routine finds its files where it left them.

Secrets

Give a command routine the keys it reads, scoped to its session or your account.