> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.xpertai.cn/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Schedule Trigger

`Schedule Trigger` automatically triggers the Digital Expert workflow based on a time schedule, which is suitable for unattended periodic tasks.

## Applicable scenarios

* Generating daily reports, weekly reports, or inspection reports on schedule
* Syncing external data on schedule and triggering downstream analysis
* Running batch processing during off-peak hours

## Key configuration

Core configuration of Schedule Trigger includes:

* `enabled`: whether enabled
* `cron`: Cron expression (required)
* `task`: default task text injected into the workflow (required)

Before publish, the workflow validates that `cron` is provided; if missing, validation fails.

## Runtime mechanism

1. **Publish phase**:
   * Delete the old task with the same name first (to prevent duplicate registration).
   * Create and start a new task based on `cron`.
2. **Trigger execution phase**:
   * When the scheduled task fires, inject `task` text into the workflow.
   * Let downstream Agent/tool/knowledge nodes continue processing.
3. **Stop phase**:
   * Stop and remove the corresponding Cron task to release scheduler resources.

## Startup recovery strategy

Schedule Trigger uses `bootstrap.mode = replay_publish`:

* After a system restart, it replays publish logic to restore scheduled tasks automatically.
* This fits trigger scenarios that need to continue running after restart.

## Related features

* Trigger node overview: [Workflow Trigger](../../workflow/trigger/)
* Multi-channel access for Digital Expert: [Digital Expert](../../agent/agent/)
* Trigger plugin overview: [Trigger Plugin](./)