Migrating from Cron

Step up from a timer to a coordination primitive. Move crontab entries to CueAPI cues.

Why migrate?

Cron is a timer. CueAPI is a coordination primitive. A cron expression is just one of many ways to declare when a cue fires. When you migrate from cron to CueAPI, you are not swapping one scheduler for another. You are stepping up to coordination infrastructure that tracks every handoff and verifies every outcome.

Feature	Cron	CueAPI
API-managed schedules	No	Yes
Pause/resume without editing config	No	Yes
Execution history	No	Yes
Automatic retries	No	Yes (3 attempts)
Outcome reporting and verification	No	Yes
Signed webhook delivery	No	Yes
Works across machines	No	Yes (worker transport)
Visibility	Check logs manually	Dashboard + API

Step 1: Identify your cron jobs

List your current crontab:

bash

crontab -l

Example output:

0 9 * * * /usr/bin/python3 /scripts/daily_report.py
*/15 * * * * /scripts/sync_inventory.sh
0 0 1 * * /scripts/monthly_cleanup.py

Step 2: Install the CueAPI CLI and worker

bash

pip install cueapi cueapi-worker
cueapi login

Step 3: Create a worker config

Create cueapi-worker.yaml mapping your scripts to handler tasks:

yaml

handlers:
  daily-report:
    cmd: "python3 /scripts/daily_report.py"
    timeout: 120
 
  sync-inventory:
    cmd: "/scripts/sync_inventory.sh"
    timeout: 60
 
  monthly-cleanup:
    cmd: "python3 /scripts/monthly_cleanup.py"
    timeout: 300

Step 4: Create cues for each job

bash

# Daily report at 9 AM
cueapi create \
  --name "daily-report" \
  --cron "0 9 * * *" \
  --transport worker \
  --payload '{"task": "daily-report"}'
 
# Inventory sync every 15 minutes
cueapi create \
  --name "sync-inventory" \
  --cron "*/15 * * * *" \
  --transport worker \
  --payload '{"task": "sync-inventory"}'
 
# Monthly cleanup
cueapi create \
  --name "monthly-cleanup" \
  --cron "0 0 1 * *" \
  --transport worker \
  --payload '{"task": "monthly-cleanup"}'

Step 5: Start the worker

bash

cueapi-worker start --config cueapi-worker.yaml

Step 6: Verify and remove old cron entries

Check that your cues are running:

bash

cueapi list
cueapi get cue_xxxxx

Once confirmed, remove the old crontab entries:

bash

crontab -e
# Remove the migrated lines

Step 7: Install as a service (optional)

To ensure the worker starts automatically:

bash

# macOS
cueapi-worker install-service --config /path/to/cueapi-worker.yaml
 
# Linux
cueapi-worker install-service --config /path/to/cueapi-worker.yaml
systemctl --user enable cueapi-worker

Cron expression mapping

Your existing cron expressions work as-is in CueAPI. The syntax is identical:

# These are the same in crontab and CueAPI
0 9 * * *        → --cron "0 9 * * *"
*/15 * * * *     → --cron "*/15 * * * *"
0 0 1 * *        → --cron "0 0 1 * *"

Note

CueAPI cron expressions support timezone specification. If your crontab runs in a specific timezone, add --timezone when creating the cue.

What you gain

After migration, each former cron job now has:

Pause/resume without editing configs
Execution history visible in the dashboard
Automatic retries if a script fails
Outcome reporting so you know what happened
Usage tracking per plan

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