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Scheduled Workflows

CronWorkflows run automation on a schedule: hourly builds, nightly backups, weekly reports. They combine the reliability of Kubernetes cron jobs with the power of Argo Workflows, enabling complex scheduled automation that survives cluster restarts and handles failures gracefully.

Why CronWorkflows?

Kubernetes CronJobs work for simple scheduled tasks. But they have limitations:

  • Single-container jobs only
  • Limited failure handling
  • No workflow visualization
  • Basic retry logic

CronWorkflows provide the full power of Argo Workflows on a schedule. Multi-step pipelines, sophisticated retry strategies, visual debugging, and artifact management are all available for scheduled automation.

Patterns

Pattern Description
Basic CronWorkflow Simple scheduled execution
Concurrency Policies Handling overlapping runs
Orchestration Scheduled pipelines that spawn child workflows
GitHub Integration Triggering GitHub Actions from schedules

Quick Start

  1. Define the schedule using cron syntax
  2. Set concurrency policy to handle overlaps appropriately
  3. Configure history limits to prevent resource accumulation
  4. Add monitoring for schedule misses and failures

Cron Syntax Quick Reference

Expression Meaning
0 * * * * Every hour at minute 0
0 0 * * * Daily at midnight
0 0 * * 0 Weekly on Sunday at midnight
0 0 1 * * Monthly on the 1st at midnight
*/15 * * * * Every 15 minutes
0 9-17 * * 1-5 Hourly 9am-5pm, Mon-Fri

Use UTC Unless Specified

CronWorkflows default to UTC. Use the timezone field for local time scheduling.

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