Claude Code Routines — scheduled cloud automation in research preview

Source: Anthropic, Introducing Routines in Claude Code (claude.com blog, 2026-04-14). Press coverage: 9to5Mac, SiliconANGLE, VentureBeat.

Key takeaways

  • Routines are saved Claude Code configurations — a prompt, one or more repos, and a connector set — that run on Anthropic’s web infrastructure without your machine online.
  • Three trigger types: scheduled (cron-like), API (HTTP endpoint + token), GitHub webhook (repo events).
  • Research preview. Requires Claude Code on the web enabled. Daily limits: Pro 5 · Max 15 · Team/Enterprise 25. Extra usage available beyond limits.
  • Create via /schedule command in the CLI or the web UI at claude.ai/code.
  • Shipped same day as a redesigned Claude Code desktop app (side-by-side sessions, integrated terminal, file editing, HTML/PDF preview).

What a Routine is

“A Claude Code automation you configure once — including a prompt, repo, and connectors — and then run on a schedule, from an API call, or in response to an event.” — Anthropic

Runs in an isolated cloud environment against existing repo connections. No local terminal required.

The three trigger types

Trigger Mechanism Example
Scheduled Cron-like cadence (hourly / nightly / weekly) “Every night at 2am: pull top bug from Linear, attempt fix, open draft PR”
API POST to dedicated endpoint with auth token; returns session URL Datadog alert → Routine triages → posts summary to Slack
GitHub webhook Repo event (PR opened, push, etc.) Flag PRs touching auth module; post summary to #security

Daily run limits

Plan Runs/day
Pro 5
Max 15
Team 25
Enterprise 25

Extra usage available beyond these limits (mechanism not specified in announcement).

How this fits the Playbook

  • Overlap with /bad and ralph-style loops. /bad runs overnight sprints locally via git worktrees. Routines move the same pattern to Anthropic-hosted infra — no local machine needed, but no local OMC orchestration either. Pick based on whether you need OMC/BMAD tooling in the loop.
  • Complements Managed Agents. Managed Agents are API-first orchestration primitives. Routines are the scheduled-trigger + webhook layer on top.
  • Regulated-vertical caveat. Cloud-hosted, scheduled, autonomous writes to repos. For SR 11-7 / EU AI Act Article 12 verticals, audit-log requirements apply — confirm per-run attribution before wiring into production pipelines. See Regulated AI.
  • GitHub webhook trigger is the interesting one. Matches the “autonomous code-review bot” blueprint but with Anthropic hosting the loop. Lower ops burden than the self-hosted blueprint.

Example use cases (from the announcement)

  • Nightly bug triage — pull top Linear issue, attempt fix, open draft PR
  • CI failure analysis overnight
  • Weekly dependency audits
  • Cross-language porting between branches
  • PR-touching-sensitive-module flagging via webhook

What to actually do

  1. Pilot on one low-risk scheduled job. Nightly dependency audit or changelog generation — reversible, no production impact.
  2. Measure the daily-limit burn. 5 runs/day on Pro is tight once you add API and webhook triggers. Team/Enterprise headroom matters if you plan fan-out.
  3. Don’t auto-merge. Keep draft PRs + human review until you’ve observed a few dozen runs.
  4. Compare against /bad before committing. If your team already runs a BMAD autonomous pipeline, Routines duplicate the scheduler layer without the dependency-graph parallelism.
  5. Audit logging gap first. Before any regulated use, confirm Routines emit per-run logs compatible with your EU AI Act Article 12 / SR 11-7 obligations.

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