Create and manage cron-style scheduled builds on a Buildkite pipeline, both from the pipeline Settings UI and via the Pipeline Schedules REST API, including supported interval/cron syntax.
domain: buildkite.com/docs · 8 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Via the UI: open the pipeline's **Settings** → **Schedules** section to create, edit, enable/disable, or delete schedules. See https://buildkite.com/docs/pipelines/configure/workflows/scheduled-builds
Via REST API — list: `GET https://api.buildkite.com/v2/organizations/{org.slug}/pipelines/{pipeline.slug}/schedules` (scope `read_pipelines`) → `200 OK`, paginated. Get one: `GET .../schedules/{id}`.
Create: `POST .../pipelines/{pipeline.slug}/schedules` with body e.g. `{"label":"Nightly build","cronline":"@daily","message":"Nightly scheduled build","branch":"main","env":{"DEPLOY_ENV":"staging"},"enabled":true}`. Only `cronline` is required; optional: `label`, `message`, `commit` (default `HEAD`), `branch` (default pipeline's default branch), `env`, `enabled` (default `true`). Scope `write_pipelines` → `201 Created`.
Update: `PUT .../pipelines/{pipeline.slug}/schedules/{id}` with any subset of the same optional fields, e.g. `{"cronline":"@hourly","enabled":false}`. Scope `write_pipelines` → `200 OK`.
Predefined `cronline` intervals: `@hourly` (`0 * * * *`), `@daily`/`@midnight` (`0 0 * * *`), `@weekly` (`0 0 * * 0`), `@monthly` (`0 0 1 * *`), `@yearly` (`0 0 1 1 *`) — all run in UTC.
Or use crontab syntax `minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week [timezone]`, e.g. `0 8 * * * America/Vancouver`. Buildkite extensions: `/` step values (`*/10 * * * *` = every 10 min), `L`/`last` for last day of month (`0 0 L * *`), and a `%`/`+` modulo+offset on the day-of-week field (`0 0 * * 0%3` = every 3rd Sunday).
Docs used: https://buildkite.com/docs/pipelines/configure/workflows/scheduled-builds and https://buildkite.com/docs/apis/rest-api/pipeline-schedules
Known gotchas
Buildkite only guarantees scheduled builds fire within 10 minutes of the scheduled time and does not support intervals shorter than 10 minutes — do not rely on minute-exact timing.
Schedules run in UTC by default; append an IANA timezone name (e.g. `Australia/Melbourne`) or a UTC offset (e.g. `+09:00`) as the trailing crontab field to run in another timezone.
The `~` random-value cron operator (found in some cron dialects) is explicitly unsupported and rejected at validation time.
If a scheduled parent pipeline triggers a child pipeline, both pipelines must share a team with at least Build access, or scheduled runs fail with a 'Could not find a matching team that includes both pipelines' error.
Creating, updating, or deleting a schedule requires scope `write_pipelines` on the token, not a separate schedules scope; listing/reading only needs `read_pipelines`.
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