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A routine is a set of instructions that one teammate runs on a schedule, even while you are away. Each time it fires, the teammate starts one run. All routines for all teammates are on the Routines page. To start work when something happens instead of at a set time, use a trigger. Triggers are on the same page, under When something happens. See Start work when something happens (triggers). Squad for Mac has the same Routines page. Where the Mac differs, this page says so in On Squad for Mac.

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Open Routines

Routines is a place in the sidebar. Open it in one of these ways:
  • Select Routines in the sidebar. It is under More unless you pinned it. See Pin a place to the sidebar.
  • On Today, select See all routines under Today’s routines. The section shows when a routine runs today.
  • On a teammate’s About page, select See all routines under Routines. The section shows when the teammate has routines.
  • Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows), type Routines, and select it.
  • On Squad for Mac, you can also choose Go > Routines in the menu bar.

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Create a routine

You can create a routine on the Routines page, or ask a teammate in chat.
Ask any teammate
The teammate creates the routine, and it shows on Routines. To create it yourself:
1

Open Routines

Open Routines. See Open Routines.
2

Pick the teammate

Select New routine. Under On a schedule, for, select the teammate. The New routine editor opens.
3

Add a title

In Title, type a short name.
4

Write the instructions

In Instructions, write what the teammate must do on each run. See Write instructions that work alone.
5

Set the schedule

In Schedule, select a preset, or Custom (cron) and type a cron expression.
6

Pick a model (optional)

Optional: in Model, select a model. Teammate default uses the teammate’s own model.
7

Choose what happens after a run

Under When it finishes, select Notify me (Sends you the result of each run) or Run quietly (Runs without sending a message).
8

Create the routine

Select Create routine.
When the instructions name a skill or a file on your cloud computer, a chip under them shows it by name. See Skills and files named in instructions. A new routine is on at once. If your cloud computer does not create it, the editor stays open and shows why. See When a change fails.

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Schedule presets

The presets are Every 5 minutes, Every 10 minutes, Every 15 minutes, Every 30 minutes, Every 45 minutes, Hourly, Every 2 hours, Every 4 hours, Every 12 hours, and Daily. A new routine starts with Hourly. The presets repeat at a fixed interval. Daily runs every 24 hours, not at a set clock time. To run at a set time, use Custom (cron). For example, 0 7 * * 1 runs at 07:00 every Monday. Squad shows the schedule in words under the field, or This cron expression isn’t valid yet. Five fields: minute, hour, day, month, weekday. A cron expression has five fields: minute, hour, day, month, and weekday.

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Model and time limit

  • Model: each routine can use its own model. Run now also uses the routine’s own model. When the list no longer offers a routine’s model, the editor shows the model with the reason after it, for example (not on your Copilot plan). See Change a teammate’s model. For models, see Choose models and manage AI accounts.
  • Time limit: the editor has no time limit field. Each routine that you create on Routines gets 24 hours: its runs stop after 24 hours, or earlier when a run shows no progress for 15 minutes. Squad does not stop a run only because it is slow.
A routine that a teammate creates also gets 24 hours, unless you ask for a shorter limit. See Limits and defaults. A routine can still have a shorter limit from an earlier setting. A routine that a teammate created another way, for example before October 19, 2026, can have no limit saved, and such a routine stops after 60 minutes. The editor then says “This routine stops after [time]. Runs longer than that are stopped even while they are still working. New routines get 24 hours.” Select Raise to 24 hours, then Save changes. Your cloud computer also raises every limit that is unset or below 24 hours to 24 hours each time it restarts. See Time limits.

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Choose the accounts of a routine

When your squad has other people in it, or had them before, the routine editor has the field Accounts it can use. It stays after the last person leaves, so you can move routines back to your own accounts. It decides which connected app accounts each run of the routine may use.
  • “My own accounts” always means the person who saves the routine. Nobody can point a routine at another person’s accounts. When another person chose their own accounts, the editor names that person and says that only they can choose their own accounts there.
  • You and your Administrators can set this field. A new routine that you create on Routines starts with Shared accounts and my own accounts.
  • A routine that a teammate creates takes the setting of the person who asked for it. When you ask, in the dashboard or on Telegram, Discord, or Slack, the routine uses the accounts shared with everyone and your own accounts. When another person asks, it uses the shared accounts and that person’s own accounts. When the request came from several people, for example in a group chat, or Squad cannot tell who asked, the routine uses only the accounts shared with everyone. A routine that a teammate creates while it handles an email uses your accounts. A routine created during a scheduled run, including a heartbeat, takes that routine’s setting.
  • A routine that nobody set uses your accounts if it ran before the first person joined your squad. Otherwise it uses only the accounts shared with everyone until someone sets it. This includes routines that a teammate created before October 7, 2026, routines that a teammate on a Claude Code account creates, and routines created with a command instead of the teammate’s scheduling tool.
  • Duplicate (paused) keeps the setting of the routine. A copy of a routine that uses another person’s accounts starts with Only accounts shared with everyone.
  • When a person leaves or you remove them, their routines use only the accounts shared with everyone.
  • A routine that runs in the teammate’s main session keeps using your accounts. A heartbeat routine runs on its own, so it follows its own Accounts it can use setting.
The same setting decides what each run may do. A routine that runs in the teammate’s main session can do everything that you can do. For other routines:
  • A routine that uses only the accounts shared with everyone works like a Collaborator. It can work on tasks, docs, and questions, but it cannot send email, change teammates, skills, or MCP tools, or set credit limits. This includes a routine that nobody set and that uses only shared accounts.
  • A routine that you saved with Shared accounts and my own accounts can do everything that you can do.
  • A routine that an Administrator saved with Shared accounts and my own accounts can do what that Administrator can do.
To let a routine send email, you or an Administrator save it with Shared accounts and my own accounts. The routine then works with the accounts and the role of the person who saved it. See Teammates work within the person’s role. To share an account, see Who can use an account.

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Write instructions that work alone

A scheduled run is a minimal session. Your teammates’ instructions say that a scheduled run loads only the teammate’s core files: its operating manual, its tool list, its Personality, its Identity, and About you. Do not rely on the teammate’s Notes or on your chats in a scheduled run. So the instructions must carry the whole brief:
  • The inputs, by name: the docs, apps, or searches to read.
  • The work, step by step.
  • The output: where the result goes and in what form.
  • What to do in the edge cases, and when to ask you a question.
Instruction template

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Manage routines

Up next at the top shows the next 4 runs. When a time is worked out from the routine’s schedule, the caption says Times are your squad’s clock.
  • Select List or Week to change the view. List groups the routines by teammate. Select a teammate’s name to open that teammate’s setup. Week shows seven day columns, from today, with the routines that are on and fit a weekly grid. Select a routine in it to edit it. Paused routines, and schedules that do not fit a weekly grid, show only in List.
  • Select Filter to show one teammate (Teammate) or one status (Status: All routines, On, Paused, or Can’t run). With more than 8 routines, Search routines also shows. It searches the names and the instructions.
Each row shows the routine’s name, when it runs in words, for example “Mondays at 7:00 AM”, and tells you when it’s done or runs quietly. A heartbeat routine named lead-heartbeat shows as “Lead heartbeat”. When the last run failed, the row shows its error and See what happened, which opens that run in History.
Delete removes the routine. You cannot restore it.
With no routines and no triggers, the page says Nothing repeats yet. Ask a teammate in chat (“every Monday at 8, send me…”), or use New routine.

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When a change fails

Squad waits until your cloud computer is ready before it creates, runs, or moves a routine. So while the cloud computer is starting, the change can take up to about a minute. When a change fails, the message says what failed and adds the reason that your computer gave. For New routine, the message shows in the editor, and the editor stays open. For the other actions, it shows above the list. For example:
  • “Your cloud computer did not create the task.” and the reason, for example a cron expression that is not valid.
  • “Your cloud computer did not start the task.” and the reason, for example “Job is already running.”
  • “Your cloud computer did not move the task to that agent.” and the reason.
When Squad lost the connection to your computer, it cannot tell whether the change happened. The message then starts with “Squad lost touch with your cloud computer, so it cannot tell whether” and asks you to check the list before you try again. For Run now, it says “Check History before you try again.” Check first, because trying again can create or run the routine twice. When your cloud computer’s disk is full, the message says that the computer is out of space, so the change was not saved. See Your cloud computer’s disk is low or full. If pausing fails, the page shows the reason, or Couldn’t update that schedule. Try again. If a copy could not be paused, Squad shows Duplicated, but the copy couldn’t be paused. It is LIVE on the same schedule. Pause the copy yourself.

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Fix the health warnings

  • A routine that cannot run shows It can’t run as it’s set up: it reminds in the background while background reminders are off. These routines show first. Select Fix it. The teammate’s setup opens, where Fix all and the count fixes them.
  • When two or more routines repeat every few minutes from minute :00, so they start together, the … menu (More for routines) at the top of Routines offers Spread out routines that start together. Your cloud computer runs up to 16 routines at once, and the rest wait until one ends. See Limits and defaults. The menu item moves only the start minutes. How often each routine runs does not change. Only people who can change routines see it. If the save fails, the page says “Couldn’t spread out the routines. Try again.”

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Turn on heartbeats

A heartbeat is a routine that wakes a teammate to check its work. On each heartbeat the teammate clears its mentions and assigned tasks and moves its own work forward. If nothing needs attention, it does nothing. Setup creates the chief of staff’s heartbeat. The chief of staff creates a heartbeat for each teammate that it adds. Every heartbeat is created switched off. Until you turn them on, teammates work only when something wakes them, for example a chat message, an @mention, a task you assign, a question you answer, or an email to their inbox. To turn on a heartbeat yourself:
1

Open Routines

Open Routines. See Open Routines.
2

Find the heartbeat

Find the heartbeat routine. Its name ends in “heartbeat”, for example “Lead heartbeat”.
3

Turn it on

Select the switch on the row. The name is no longer grey, and the heartbeat shows in Up next.
The chief of staff’s heartbeat runs more often than the heartbeats of the other teammates. For the intervals, see Limits and defaults. The chief of staff turns its own heartbeat on only when you clearly ask for it. You can also ask it to turn on the other teammates’ heartbeats.
Ask your chief of staff
Each heartbeat is a run on your connected AI account, even when nothing needs attention. Heartbeats do not use credits. See What Squad costs and what uses credits.

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Pause and resume a teammate’s routines

When you pause a teammate, Squad pauses all of that teammate’s routines that are on. For how to pause a teammate, see Add, change, and pause teammates. When you resume the teammate, Squad turns on again only the routines that the pause turned off. Routines that you paused one by one before, and heartbeats that were off, stay off. A routine that someone switched off while the teammate was paused stays off too. A pause also turns off the teammate’s Native heartbeat, and Resume brings it back as it was. See Pause a teammate.
A teammate that you paused on or before 27 September 2026 can be an exception. When you resume it, Squad can turn on all of its routines, including heartbeats. After you resume such a teammate, open Routines and pause the routines that you want to keep off.
Pausing a teammate does not pause its triggers. Their events wait, and Squad delivers them when you resume the teammate. See Pause, change, or delete a trigger.

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On Squad for Mac

Squad for Mac has the same routines, with these differences. The list The week
  • Week shows Monday to Sunday at the routines’ times in your time zone. Use the arrows to move a week, and Back to today to return. The Mac keeps your choice of List or Week.
  • When more than one teammate has routines, chips at the top show or hide each teammate’s routines.
  • The Runs continuously row lists the routines that run at a set interval. After the first ones, a link with the number and more switches to List.
  • When too many routines start in the same hour, a ”+” marker with a number opens the agenda, a list of every routine. Back to the week returns to the grid.
  • Select a routine to see its schedule, model, last and next run, and last result. The owner or an Administrator can select Pause, Resume, or Edit there.
The editor
  • Model offers Their default instead of Teammate default. When it finishes offers Notify me · sends you the result of each run and Run quietly · no message.
  • Create routine and Save changes stay off while the title is empty or the schedule is not valid.
  • Press ⌘Return to save. If you close the editor with Esc, the Mac keeps what you typed for next time.
  • After a save, a message can say that the change applies in the background, usually in a minute or two.
The health warnings
  • The owner and Administrators see a card at the top of Routines that names the routine that can’t run, with Fix it. With several, the card says “N routines can’t run as they’re set up.” and the button is Fix them. Other people see the card without the button.
  • Fixing makes every routine that reminds its teammate in the background run straight on its schedule, not only the ones that can’t run. It also turns off Check-ins on a timer for all teammates, also for a paused teammate, whose check-ins then stay off when you resume it. Schedules, instructions, and notifications stay the same. When a routine has no chat to report to, pick one under “Where should [routine] tell you?” first.
  • The ⋯ menu beside New routine offers Spread Out Routines That Start Together, as on the web.
When Routines cannot reach your cloud computer, the Mac says “Your cloud computer is asleep”, with Wake and retry. For keyboard navigation on the Mac, see Keyboard shortcuts.

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Who can do what

The owner and Administrators can create, change, run, pause, and delete routines. An Administrator who is limited to some teammates manages only the routines of those teammates. Collaborators and Viewers can read the routines and open Its runs. Routines are not on a public dashboard.

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What teammates can do with routines

Teammates create, change, pause, resume, run, and delete routines when you ask in chat, and the change shows on Routines. They do this only for the owner and Administrators, as on this page. For anyone else, Squad refuses. For a Collaborator, Squad tells the teammate to ask the owner or an Administrator in a question, and to tell the Collaborator that it did. A yes lets the teammate make the change. A teammate’s change does not restart anything. When it sets up a routine, the teammate tells you what it set up, when it runs, and in which time zone. A routine that runs once, such as a reminder, removes itself after it runs. See Routines and heartbeats. When a routine that a teammate sets up for you sends its result and names no other place, the result goes back to the conversation where you asked, when Squad can tell which conversation that was: a conversation in the dashboard, or a chat with a bot on Telegram, Discord, or Slack that has its own conversation. Direct messages to a bot that share the teammate’s main conversation, which is the default, name no single chat. A routine asked for there sends its result to the chat where that conversation last talked, when Squad still has it. When the result cannot be delivered there, Squad points the routine at the teammate’s own chat in the dashboard. Squad checks where each routine sends its result when a teammate creates or changes it, and again every few minutes, for every routine that sends its result. This includes a routine that you create with Notify me. See Limits and defaults. When a result could not be delivered because the routine names no chat or person that its app can send to, Squad points the routine at the conversation where it was asked for, on that chat’s bot. When there is no such conversation, it points the routine at the teammate’s own chat in the dashboard. A routine that already ran is changed only after such a result. That result does not arrive, and the next ones do. Other failures do not change the routine, for example a bot that was blocked or removed from the chat: fix the bot, or ask a teammate to change where the routine sends its result. When the owner changes their Telegram user ID, routines and heartbeats that send their result to the owner’s old Telegram account send it to the new one. See Change your Telegram user ID. A routine whose run a restart cut off is finished by its teammate, which sends the result there. See Interrupted runs. For work that should start each time something happens, teammates can suggest a trigger instead. See Turn on a trigger that a teammate suggests. The chief of staff sets up a heartbeat, switched off, for each teammate that it adds. It turns heartbeats on only when you clearly ask.
Ask your chief of staff

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Common questions

Yes. Your cloud computer runs up to 16 routines at once. When more are due, the rest wait until one ends. To spread routines that repeat every few minutes and start together, select Spread out routines that start together in the … menu at the top of Routines.

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Check that it works

  • The new routine shows in the list with its switch on, and its next run shows in Up next.
  • After Run now, a run for the routine shows in History, under the routine’s name. Select ⋯, then Its runs. See See what your squad did.
  • With Notify me, the result of each run is sent to you.

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Troubleshooting

  • Routines shows This teammate is asleep. Cause: Squad reads routines from your cloud computer, and it did not answer. Fix: select Wake & retry.
  • A routine shows It can’t run as it’s set up. Cause: it is a background reminder while background reminders are off. Fix: select Fix it. On Squad for Mac, the fix is on the card at the top of Routines. See On Squad for Mac.
  • A change fails with “Squad lost touch with your cloud computer”. Cause: the connection dropped before your computer answered. Fix: check the list, or History for Run now, before you try again.
  • A daily routine runs at a different time than you expected. Cause: Daily is an interval of 24 hours, not a clock time. Fix: use Custom (cron) with a set time.
  • A run skipped work it did last time. Cause: scheduled runs do not load the teammate’s Notes or your chats. Fix: put the facts and doc names in the routine’s instructions.