Scheduling and Intervals

Once you've created a task, the next decision is when it should run. O-mega offers flexible scheduling options that range from one-time executions to sophisticated recurring patterns. You can set a task to run once at a specific moment, repeat every hour, or execute weekly on a particular day—whatever fits your workflow.

The scheduling system works like a personal assistant who never forgets. Set up your schedules once, and your agents execute reliably at the designated times without any ongoing attention from you. This is how you build a truly automated workforce.

Trigger Types

Every task has a trigger type that determines when and how it runs. The trigger defines the relationship between time and execution.

Available trigger types:

Most users work primarily with Scheduled and Interval triggers. Chat triggers are the default for tasks you want to run on-demand, while Change Stream triggers serve specialized automation scenarios.

Scheduling a One-Time Task

When you need something to happen at a specific moment—a report generated before Monday's meeting, a post published at a launch time—scheduled triggers are the answer.

To set up a one-time scheduled task:

1. Edit the task you want to schedule
2. Set the trigger type to "Scheduled"
3. Choose the specific date and time
4. Select your timezone (important for accuracy)
5. Save the task

The task will execute automatically at the scheduled time. You don't need to be online or watching—the system handles execution and stores results for you to review later.

One-time schedules are particularly useful for coordinating with external events. Schedule a social media post to go out at product launch time, or set up a data pull to happen right before your weekly review meeting.

Setting Up Intervals

For work that should happen repeatedly, interval triggers create ongoing automation. Define the pattern once, and your agent executes on that schedule indefinitely.

To configure an interval:

1. Edit the task
2. Set the trigger type to "Interval"
3. Choose the frequency pattern:
   • Daily - Runs every N days (e.g., every day, every 3 days)
   • Weekly - Runs every N weeks (e.g., every Monday, every other Friday)
   • Monthly - Runs every N months on a specific date
   • Custom - Runs every N minutes for high-frequency needs
4. Set the interval value (e.g., every 2 days, every 1 week)
5. Optionally set an end date if the automation should stop eventually
6. Save

Your agent will execute the task on this schedule until you modify or cancel it. Each execution produces its own set of deliverables, building a history of results over time.

Interval Limits

To ensure system stability and prevent runaway automation, intervals operate within defined boundaries.

Interval boundaries:

• Minimum interval - 5 minutes (for high-frequency monitoring use cases)
• Maximum interval - 43,200 minutes (30 days)

For most business workflows, daily or weekly intervals are appropriate. High-frequency intervals (every 5-15 minutes) are useful for monitoring scenarios where you need near-real-time awareness of changes.

Calendar View

All your scheduled events and intervals are visible in your agent's calendar. This view gives you a comprehensive picture of what's planned and what has already happened.

The calendar shows:

• Upcoming scheduled executions with their times
• Past execution history with success/failure status
• Recurring patterns from interval tasks

From the calendar, you can edit schedules, cancel upcoming executions, or review results from past runs. It's your control center for understanding and managing your agent's automated activity.

Event Statuses

As scheduled events move through their lifecycle, they transition between states that indicate their current situation.

Event states include:

• Pending - The event is waiting for its scheduled time to arrive
• Completed - Execution happened successfully
• Failed - Execution encountered an error
• Cancelled - The event was manually cancelled before execution

Failed events include information about what went wrong, helping you diagnose issues and adjust your tasks if needed.

Best Practices

Effective scheduling requires thinking about reliability, resource usage, and your actual needs.

Recommendations for good scheduling:

• Start with longer intervals and decrease only if you genuinely need more frequency
• Check execution history regularly to ensure tasks are completing successfully
• Set end dates for temporary campaigns or time-limited automation
• Use timezones correctly to ensure execution happens at the right local time

It's better to start conservative and increase frequency than to set up aggressive schedules that consume credits unnecessarily. You can always adjust based on how the automation performs.

Related: Creating Tasks | Understanding Deliverables