# Schedules

URL: /code/platform/schedules · Id: `capability:schedules`

> Schedules start Actions and Workflows at set times, on recurring rules and on business-hours calendars.

Schedules start [Actions](/business/nouns/action) and [Workflows](/business/nouns/workflow) at set times, on recurring rules and on business-hours calendars. A schedule is one kind of [Trigger](/business/nouns/trigger).

## Contract
- A schedule is a record in the namespace with an owner [Role](/business/nouns/role). Its rule is a cron expression, a named rule such as `every.weekday.at8am`, or a sentence compiled to one.
- Each firing is an Action, pending with reason `awaitingTime` until it is due.
- Each calendar's working hours, holidays and time zone are [Settings](/business/nouns/setting). They inherit from [Studio](/business/nouns/studio) to [Portfolio](/business/nouns/portfolio) to [Startup](/business/nouns/startup), and a child can only tighten them.
- Delay windows count on these calendars, so a window of one working day skips the weekend.
- A firing missed during an outage runs once on recovery, never once per missed slot.
- The shortest interval is one minute.
- Pause, resume and skip are Actions, attributed like any other write.

## Verbs
| Verb | Object | Event |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Trigger.create](/business/nouns/trigger/create) | [Trigger](/business/nouns/trigger) | `Trigger.created` |

## Interfaces
- [API](/code/api/reference)
- [SDK](/code/sdk/reference)
- [CLI](/code/cli/reference)
- [MCP](/code/mcp/reference)

## Example
```ts
import { $ } from 'startup-builder'

// A booking app for dental clinics texts tomorrow's patients at 4pm, clinic time.
// The reminder Workflow starts on this Trigger.
await $.Trigger.create({ schedule: '0 16 * * 1-5 America/Chicago' })
```