> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.langchain.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Add schedules to Managed Deep Agents
> Declare managed cron schedules for Managed Deep Agents deployments.
Managed Deep Agents can run agents on a cron schedule. When you deploy the project, `mda deploy` provisions each schedule as a LangSmith cron after the deployment is live.
Managed Deep Agents is in **public [beta](/langsmith/release-stages)** and available on [LangSmith Cloud](/langsmith/cloud) in the US region only.
## Project structure
Schedule declarations live in the project-level `schedules/` directory, with one schedule per file:
```text theme={"theme":{"light":"catppuccin-latte","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
my-agent/
agent.ts
schedules/
daily-digest.ts
```
## Add a schedule
The file name becomes the managed schedule name.
The schedule module must export a named `schedule` declaration.
```ts schedules/daily-digest.ts theme={"theme":{"light":"catppuccin-latte","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
import { defineSchedule } from "managed-deepagents";
export const schedule = defineSchedule({
cron: "0 8 * * 1-5",
timezone: "America/Los_Angeles",
prompt: "Write the daily digest.",
});
```
## Configure schedule input
Each schedule must define exactly one of:
* `prompt`: A natural-language prompt. MDA converts it to a user message when the cron fires.
* `input`: A structured LangGraph input object. Use this when you need to pass custom graph input instead of a single prompt.
```ts schedules/nightly-sweep.ts theme={"theme":{"light":"catppuccin-latte","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
import { defineSchedule } from "managed-deepagents";
export const schedule = defineSchedule({
cron: "30 2 * * *",
input: {
messages: [
{ role: "user", content: "Sweep stale tickets and summarize changes." },
],
},
});
```
`cron` must be a standard five-field cron expression: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week. If `timezone` is omitted, LangSmith crons use UTC.
## Choose thread behavior
Schedules use ephemeral threads by default. MDA creates a fresh thread for each run and asks LangSmith to delete that temporary thread after the run completes.
Use a persistent thread only when scheduled runs should accumulate durable thread state across invocations.
The following example requires [durable memory](/langsmith/javascript/managed-deep-agents-memory).
```ts schedules/nightly-memory.ts theme={"theme":{"light":"catppuccin-latte","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
import { defineSchedule } from "managed-deepagents";
export const schedule = defineSchedule({
cron: "0 3 * * *",
prompt: "Review the current project memory and list follow-up tasks.",
thread: { mode: "persistent", id: "nightly-memory" },
});
```
## Deliver results to Slack
Set `deliverTo` to post the final response through a configured [Slack channel](/langsmith/javascript/managed-deep-agents-channels-slack).
Use a Slack channel ID because scheduled runs have no originating thread.
Schedule delivery requires `managed-deepagents` version 0.4.0 or later.
```ts schedules/monday-greeting.ts theme={"theme":{"light":"catppuccin-latte","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
import { defineSchedule } from "managed-deepagents";
export const schedule = defineSchedule({
cron: "0 9 * * 1",
prompt: "Write a short Monday greeting.",
deliverTo: {
channel: "slack",
to: {
type: "provider_conversation",
conversationId: "C0123456789",
},
},
});
```
The Slack bot must have access to the destination.
## Use static declarations
Schedule declarations are extracted at compile time. Keep schedule configuration statically serializable:
* Use literals, arrays, objects, and references to top-level literal constants.
* Do not read environment variables, call functions, spread objects, or compute schedule values dynamically.
* Put dynamic behavior in the agent, tools, middleware, or runtime context instead.
## Deploy schedules
Test the project locally with [`mda dev`](/langsmith/javascript/managed-deep-agents-cli#develop-locally), then deploy it with [`mda deploy`](/langsmith/javascript/managed-deep-agents-deploy). Open deployment traces in LangSmith to inspect model calls, tool calls, errors, and latency.
When the deployment reaches `DEPLOYED`, `mda deploy` searches for existing MDA-owned cron jobs on the deployed Agent Server, deletes them, and creates cron jobs for the current `schedules/` declarations. Removing a local schedule file and redeploying removes the corresponding managed cron.
If you deploy with `--no-wait`, the CLI triggers the remote build and exits before the deployment reaches `DEPLOYED`, so it does not reconcile schedules during that invocation. Run `mda deploy .` without `--no-wait` when adding, changing, or removing schedules.
## Troubleshoot schedules
* `must export a named schedule declaration`: Export a top-level `schedule` from each file in `schedules/`.
* `must define exactly one of prompt or input`: Add either `prompt` or `input`, but not both.
* `cron must be a standard 5-field expression`: Use five cron fields, not seconds-based cron syntax.
* `schedule is not static`: Replace computed values with literals or top-level literal constants.
* `failed to create cron for schedule`: Open the deployment URL in LangSmith and confirm the deployed Agent Server is healthy.
## Next steps
Deploy and reconcile schedule changes.
Look up `mda deploy` flags and troubleshooting.
***
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