# cronai.app 101

cronai.app runs AI workflows on a schedule and keeps a record of every run. A workflow is one AI step on a schedule. Each run is recorded and its result sent by email or to your webhook.

This page takes you from your invitation to a workflow that runs.

## Before you start

cronai.app is in alpha, and you join by invitation. Open the link in your invitation email, enter your name, choose a password of at least 18 characters, accept the alpha terms and choose "Create account". The account is for the email address the invitation was sent to.

After that, "Sign in" takes that address and your password.

## Your first workflow

Open "Workflows". While you have no workflow, the page offers "Create your first workflow", and the form opens with an example you can change: three questions to plan your day, emailed to you every weekday at 07:00. Later the button reads "New workflow".

Give the workflow a "Name". Under "AI step", "Prompt" is what you ask the model on every run; "System prompt (optional)" can stay empty. "Web search" lets the step search the web during a run, and it stays "Off" until you choose a provider.

Under "Schedule", "Schedule (cron)" takes a cron expression: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week. The example's is `0 7 * * 1-5`. "Time zone" takes a name such as `Europe/Berlin`, and the schedule follows its daylight saving time. "Next 5 runs" lists when the workflow runs next, in that time zone and in UTC.

Under "Delivery", choose where each result goes: an email to your account's address, or a webhook at the "Webhook URL" you enter.

"Review and save" lists what you entered, and "Create workflow" creates the workflow. With a webhook, the next page shows its signing secret only once: copy it there.

## Running it

The schedule starts the runs. On the workflow's page, "Run now" starts one without waiting for the schedule and opens its page.

A run's page says how the delivery went and how long the run took. Below that are "When it ran", the "Output", the "Steps" and what was "Sent to the model".

"Run history" on the workflow's page lists the runs, newest first. "With previous" in a row opens "Compare runs" for that run and the one before it.

"Pause schedule" stops the schedule and keeps the workflow and its runs; "Activate schedule" starts it again.

## When a run fails

"Home" lists the workflow under "Needs you", marked "Failed", with the link "Open the last failed run". The run's page says why it failed, where a reason was recorded, and offers "Run again", "Check delivery settings" and "Report a problem".

A schedule whose runs keep failing can be paused for you; "Home" then says "Paused after failures".

"Report a problem" is also in the "Help" menu at the top of the app. A report is sent with the page you came from.

## Changing a workflow

"Edit" on the workflow's page opens the form again. The "Changes" tab lists what you changed; "Review and save", then "Save version", saves it as a new version.

"Version history" lists the versions with their dates. "Restore this version" on an earlier one makes it the current version again, as a new version; the delivery stays as it is.

## Limits in the alpha

"Home" shows, under "Limits", how many "Emails" and "Web searches" your workspace used in the last 24 hours, and of how many.

When one runs out, "Needs you" says "Limit reached": without emails a workflow cannot send its result, and without web searches a step runs without search.

## Where to read on

- [API reference](/docs/api): The operations of the cronai.app API, grouped by resource, and how to authenticate.
- [How schedules run](/docs/run-semantics): What the cronai.app scheduler does with a cron schedule: its time zone, clock changes, when a run starts, failures, and missed or overlapping runs.

For anything else, write to [support@cronai.de](mailto:support@cronai.de).