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The AI Agent Factory

Work that runs while you sleep

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Panaversity ·
6 min read

A scheduled task is a saved instruction that runs by itself. For example: "Every Friday at 9 a.m., prepare this week's payment run and save the spreadsheet to our shared Drive." Think of it as a job on the project manager's calendar.

There are two kinds:1,2

KindWhere it runsYour computer must be on?
Cloud taskOn a borrowed desk in the cloudNo
Desktop taskOn your own computer, through the Claude desktop appYes, with the app open and the computer awake

ChatGPT has scheduled tasks too. The Tour's Side by side page compares the two apps.

Each run usually starts a brand-new session. It does not remember the chat that created it or the last run.1,2 Think of a new project manager who arrives every Friday. They only know the written instructions and what was saved somewhere lasting, like Drive.

A new desk for every run: each run usually starts fresh, and only what you saved somewhere lasting carries over. At the top, a box for the scheduled task, your written instruction and a time. Arrows lead from it to three boxes, Run 1, Run 2 and Run 3. Each is a fresh session, with no chat and no last run. Each run has a two-way arrow, labeled read and write, to a wide gold box below: saved somewhere lasting, such as Drive, a shared sheet or GitHub. Under it are two boxes. Cloud task: keeps going with your laptop closed. Desktop task: needs the app open and the computer awake. The callout at the bottom says: write the brief for a stranger, and save the results outside the desk.

That gives three practical rules:

  1. Write the instruction so a stranger could follow it. Say exactly what to do and what "done" looks like.
  2. Save results somewhere lasting, like Drive or a shared document, so the next run can find them.
  3. Decide which actions need your yes. A scheduled task runs while you are away. A cloud task usually does not stop to ask you before each step, and its actions through your connectors appear as you.2 So give it connectors and settings that can only draft, not send or pay, and let a person approve the important actions.

Next, Brightline's payment run, behind the screen puts these rules to work. Later, Projects shows how several related jobs can run together.

Check yourself

Question 1 / 4

0 answered

What is a scheduled task?

Sources

  1. As verified on November 9, 2026, Anthropic says a local task "only fires while the app is open and your computer is awake", and a cloud task "runs even when your computer is off". It also says a desktop task "starts a fresh session when a task is due". Schedule recurring tasks in Claude Code Desktop, Anthropic.↑↑2
  2. As verified on November 9, 2026, Anthropic says a cloud run's session "begins in auto mode unless auto mode is unavailable", that "You don't choose a permission mode when you create the task", and that Claude "can use an included connector during a run, including writes". It says a run still stops for some actions, such as ones that match an ask rule, and that "Anything a scheduled task does through your connected GitHub identity or connectors appears as you." It says each cloud run opens as a new session, and that inside a project a run can continue an existing thread instead, which is why this page says "usually". Automate work with scheduled tasks, Anthropic.↑↑2↑3
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