Skip to content

Schedule Trigger Block

The Schedule Trigger block triggers workflows on a recurring schedule using cron expressions. It uses Amazon EventBridge to create scheduled rules.

AWS Service: Amazon EventBridge Scheduler

Category: Trigger

Configuration Options

Property Default Description
schedule 0 0 * * ? * Cron expression defining when to trigger (UTC timezone)
enabled true Whether the schedule trigger is active

Configuration Details

Cron Expression Format

AWS cron expressions have 6 fields:

┌───────────── minute (0-59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0-23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1-12 or JAN-DEC)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (1-7 or SUN-SAT)
│ │ │ │ │ ┌───────────── year (optional)
│ │ │ │ │ │
* * * * ? *

Special Characters:

Character Description
* Any value
? No specific value (use in day-of-month OR day-of-week)
- Range (e.g., 1-5)
, List (e.g., MON,WED,FRI)
/ Increment (e.g., 0/15 = every 15 minutes starting at 0)
L Last (e.g., L in day-of-month = last day of month)
W Weekday (e.g., 15W = nearest weekday to 15th)
# Nth occurrence (e.g., FRI#3 = third Friday)

Important

All times are in UTC. Adjust your cron expressions accordingly for your local timezone.

Common Cron Patterns

Pattern Cron Expression Description
Every minute * * * * ? * Runs every minute
Every 5 minutes 0/5 * * * ? * Runs at minute 0, 5, 10, 15...
Every hour 0 * * * ? * Runs at minute 0 of every hour
Every day at midnight 0 0 * * ? * Runs at 00:00 UTC daily
Every day at 9 AM UTC 0 9 * * ? * Runs at 09:00 UTC daily
Every Monday at 8 AM 0 8 ? * MON * Runs at 08:00 UTC every Monday
Every weekday at 6 PM 0 18 ? * MON-FRI * Runs at 18:00 UTC Mon-Fri
First of every month 0 0 1 * ? * Runs at midnight UTC on the 1st
Every 15th at noon 0 12 15 * ? * Runs at 12:00 UTC on the 15th
Last day of month 0 0 L * ? * Runs at midnight UTC on last day

Enabled

Toggle to quickly enable or disable the schedule without changing the cron expression.

  • true: Schedule is active and will trigger workflows
  • false: Schedule is disabled, no triggers will occur

AWS Reference

Example Usage

Daily Report Generator

Schedule Trigger (0 8 * * ? *) --> Function (generate report) --> Function (send email)

Runs every day at 8 AM UTC to generate and send a daily report.

Hourly Data Sync

Schedule Trigger (0 * * * ? *) --> Function (sync data)

Synchronizes data from an external source every hour.

Weekly Cleanup Job

Schedule Trigger (0 2 ? * SUN *) --> Function (cleanup old records)

Runs every Sunday at 2 AM UTC to clean up old database records.

Best Practices

  1. Use UTC consistently: All times are in UTC, plan accordingly
  2. Test with shorter intervals first: Start with frequent triggers for testing
  3. Disable when not needed: Toggle enabled off instead of deleting
  4. Consider timezone offsets: If you need 9 AM EST, use 14:00 UTC (EST = UTC-5)