Routines
Agent work on a schedule — every few minutes, daily or weekly — each run in a fresh thread, with pause, run now and one catch-up after a missed run.
A routine is an instruction with a schedule. Use it for recurring chores: a morning briefing on open pull requests, a weekly dependency check, an hourly look at a log file. Open Routines from More in the title bar, the Workspace hub or the command palette.
Create a routine
Choose New routine:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Title | For example Morning briefing |
| Instruction | The complete instruction for each run. Every run starts without prior knowledge, so include everything the agent needs to know |
| Agent | Claude Code or Codex |
| Project | The folder the agent works in — or No project, in which case it runs in your user folder |
| Schedule | Interval, Daily or Weekly |
| Schedule | Options |
|---|---|
| Interval | Every 15 or 30 minutes, every 1, 2, 4, 6, 12 or 24 hours |
| Daily | At a time of day |
| Weekly | On a weekday at a time |
A preview under the schedule reads it back in plain words — Every 2 hours, Daily at 09:00, Every Monday at 08:30.
The routine list
Each routine shows its agent, title and state — Active, Paused or Running — the schedule, the project, the next run and the result of the last one (completed or failed, with a short note).
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Run now | Runs the routine immediately — only while it is active |
| Open last | Opens the thread of the most recent run in Chat |
| Pause / Resume | Stops or restarts the schedule without deleting anything |
| Edit | Changes instruction, agent, project or schedule |
| Delete | Deletes the routine; past runs stay in Chat |
How routines run
- PaneScale checks schedules every minute with its own clock, so routines keep their timing even when timers were delayed while the computer was busy or briefly asleep.
- Every run starts a fresh thread, so each result has its own record in Chat.
- The computer is kept awake while a routine runs.
- Runs are non-interactive agent turns: up to 15 minutes and 1 MB of output each, with your skills and project memories added as context and your Token Guardian budgets and loop rules applied.
Missed runs
If PaneScale was closed or the computer was asleep when a routine was due, the run is made up once when PaneScale is back — as long as it was missed within the last 24 hours. Older misses are skipped and the routine is simply scheduled for its next time. A routine never runs several times to catch up.