Chapter 17: Many agents

Scheduled agents

Also called routines, cron agents

An agent started by a clock or an event and not by a person: triage overnight, check a deploy every five minutes. Nobody is watching when it runs, so it needs narrower permissions than you'd give yourself, and its own way to stop.

It is the cheapest way to get work done while you sleep, and also a good way to get surprised. It acts with whatever access you gave it, on a schedule you may have forgotten about.

Say it to your agent

“Every morning, read the open issues labelled bug, try to reproduce the newest, and post what you found as a comment. Don't push code or close anything. If you find nothing new, say so and stop.”

The workshop

Name a word, or describe what you mean in everyday language.