Use case
Let the Mac work overnight
The full test suite takes too long for an active loop. A repeated audit belongs on a schedule, but its output still needs a branch, a history, and a reviewer.
What you do
- Choose the unit of work. Schedule a literal command, an existing command button, or a named recipe.
- Set the cron expression. PRCHD uses standard five-field cron at minute granularity in the Mac’s local timezone, such as
0 2 * * *. - Decide on catch-up. One optional catch-up run can fire after a window the Mac missed while it was down.
- Leave the phone out of it. The schedule belongs to the project on the Mac. It fires with no phone attached.
- Open Activity in the morning. The run records start, end, outcome, related workspace or process, retention, summary, and error.
- Inspect only what matters. Successful worktree runs stay only when there is work to review. Failures stay for diagnosis. Empty scaffolding is removed.
What it relies on
Command automations and workspace recipes run in a fresh worktree created when the schedule fires. Project recipes are read-only and run in the project root in Plan mode. Running a schedule manually uses the same dispatcher and does not move the next cron time.
Recipes are Markdown files in the PRCHD home folder or .prchd/recipes/ in a repository. The frontmatter defines kind, model, effort, mode, and deliverable; the body is the prompt sent verbatim.
Why a repository recipe asks for trust
A file recipe is keyed by its content hash. It appears in the catalog but cannot run until you approve that exact content on that Mac. Editing the file invalidates approval. If a repository file tries to replace a built-in system action, the working built-in stays available until the override is approved.
That check matters more overnight than on demand: a changed repository file cannot silently turn a familiar schedule into a different agent instruction.
What it does not do
Automations are time-based. There are no webhooks or repository-event triggers. The Mac must be available when the schedule fires unless catch-up is enabled for a later run. PRCHD does not guarantee that an agent task produces useful work; the durable history tells you what actually happened.
Optional notifications can report an automation outcome after the Mac connects to the PRCHD notification service. The payload contains a fixed event kind, an outcome, and opaque routing ids. It never contains the command, recipe text, project name, file path, error, or agent prose.
Give the repeated work a record.
Schedule it on the Mac. Review the retained branch and outcome when you are ready.