Schedule Trigger

The Schedule trigger fires an automation rule on a repeating time pattern, completely independent of any device data. Use it for time-of-day routines, periodic tasks, daily reports, or any rule that should run on a clock rather than in response to a sensor event.

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How It Works

VWire runs a background job queue that evaluates all scheduled rules at the configured interval and fires the ones whose schedule matches the current time. The rule's conditions are then checked, and if all pass, actions run.

Clock ticks past configured interval
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         ▼
  Scheduler evaluates all schedule-type rules
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  Rule's schedule matches → trigger fires
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  Conditions checked (optional) → Actions run

No device data

Because the schedule trigger has no associated device or pin, template variables are not substituted from a trigger snapshot — the trigger snapshot is empty. You can still reference pin values in conditions and message templates using the {{VW-XXXXX:pin}} syntax, but those values come from the last cached reading, not from a fresh publish.

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When to Use This Trigger

Use Case	Example
Morning routine	Every weekday at 07:00 → turn lights on (set D0 = 1)
Nightly shutdown	Every day at 22:00 → power off all relays
Periodic sensor check	Every 30 minutes → check temperature pin, alert if too high
Daily report	Every day at 09:00 → send email summary via webhook
Irrigation cycle	Every day at 06:00 and 18:00 → run pump for 10 seconds
Keep-alive ping	Every 5 minutes → call a webhook heartbeat

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Step-by-Step Setup

Step 1 — Basics

Name the rule descriptively (e.g. "Morning Light Routine" or "Daily 09:00 Status Email"). Select the Project.

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Step 2 — Trigger

Select Schedule from the trigger type list.

Field	Description
Interval (minutes)	Run every N minutes. Used when no cron expression is provided.
Cron expression	Optional. Overrides the interval. Standard 5-field cron syntax.

One or the other

Use only one of these fields:

• Leave the cron expression empty → the interval field controls the schedule.
• Fill in the cron expression → the interval field is ignored.

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Interval Mode

Set Interval (minutes) to any positive integer. The rule fires repeatedly, every N minutes, starting from when it was last enabled or the server started.

Value	Fires
5	Every 5 minutes
30	Every 30 minutes
60	Once per hour
1440	Once per day (at start time — use cron for a specific time of day)

Interval: time-of-day control

The simple interval cannot target a specific time of day (e.g. "every day at 07:00"). For that, use a cron expression instead.

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Cron Expression Mode

VWire uses the standard 5-field cron format:

 ┌─── minute (0–59)
 │  ┌─── hour (0–23, in the rule's Timezone)
 │  │  ┌─── day of month (1–31)
 │  │  │  ┌─── month (1–12)
 │  │  │  │  ┌─── day of week (0–7, 0 and 7 = Sunday)
 │  │  │  │  │
 *  *  *  *  *

Common Cron Examples

Expression	Meaning
0 7 * * *	Every day at 07:00
0 22 * * *	Every day at 22:00
0 7 * * 1-5	Monday–Friday at 07:00
0 8,18 * * *	08:00 and 18:00 every day
*/30 * * * *	Every 30 minutes
0 9 * * 1	Every Monday at 09:00
0 0 1 * *	First day of every month at midnight
*/5 9-17 * * 1-5	Every 5 minutes, 09:00–17:00, Mon–Fri

Timezone matters

Cron hours are interpreted in the Timezone you set in Step 5. Set the timezone to match your local time — otherwise 0 7 * * * fires at 07:00 UTC, which may be wrong for your region.

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Step 3 — Conditions (optional)

Conditions work the same as in other trigger types — they read the current cached pin value from the most recent data received for that device + pin.

Example use cases with schedule + conditions:

• Every 30 minutes → check if temperature V1 > 25 → only then send a notification
• Every night at 22:00 → check if the pump relay D0 is still ON (= 1) → auto-turn it off

info

If you only want "fire at this time with no filtering", skip conditions entirely. The rule will fire on the schedule regardless of any device state.

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Step 4 — Actions

All standard actions are available:

Action	Example
Set Pin Value	Turn on a relay (D0 = 1) at 07:00 and add a second rule to turn it off at 22:00
Toggle Pin	Flip a pin's state on each schedule fire
Send Notification	"Good morning — daily routine activated"
Call Webhook	POST to an external API (daily report, heartbeat)
Send Email	Daily summary email to the team (Pro+ plan)
Delay	Between two Set Pin actions — e.g. run pump for 10 s then stop

Example — pump on for 10 seconds:

Order	Action	Details
1	Set Pin Value	D0 = 1 (pump on)
2	Delay	10 seconds
3	Set Pin Value	D0 = 0 (pump off)

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Step 5 — Options

Option	Notes for schedule rules
Cooldown	Rarely needed for schedule rules — the schedule itself controls frequency. Set only if you have multiple schedule-type rules with overlapping timings.
Timezone	Important for cron rules. Set this to your local IANA timezone (e.g. Europe/London, America/New_York, Asia/Karachi). Cron hours are interpreted in this timezone. Interval rules are unaffected by timezone.
Active Time Window	Can be used to further restrict when a rule can fire, but for schedule rules it's usually simpler to set the cron expression correctly instead.
Active Days	Useful if you're using an interval (e.g. "every 60 minutes, but only on weekdays") and don't want to write a complex cron expression.

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Worked Examples

Example 1 — Irrigation Cycle (Twice Daily)

Scenario: Run a garden irrigation pump for 30 seconds at 06:00 and 18:00 every day.

Field	Value
Name	Irrigation Cycle
Project	Garden
Trigger	Schedule
Cron	0 6,18 * * *
Timezone	Asia/Karachi
Action 1	Set Pin — Pump controller / D0 = 1
Action 2	Delay — 30 s
Action 3	Set Pin — Pump controller / D0 = 0

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Example 2 — Daily Briefing Webhook

Scenario: Every weekday morning at 09:00, POST to a Slack webhook with the current temperature reading.

Field	Value
Name	Daily Morning Briefing
Project	Office
Trigger	Schedule
Cron	0 9 * * 1-5
Timezone	Europe/London
Action	Call Webhook — POST to Slack incoming webhook
Cooldown	0 (cron already limits frequency)

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Example 3 — Periodic Watchdog Check

Scenario: Every 10 minutes, check if the greenhouse temperature (V1) is above 35 °C and send an alarm if so — but only during the day (07:00–21:00).

Field	Value
Name	Greenhouse Overtemp Watchdog
Project	Greenhouse
Trigger	Schedule
Interval	10 minutes
Condition	GreenhouseSensor V1 > 35
Action	Send Alarm — "🌡️ Greenhouse overtemp: {{VW-XXXXX:V1}}°C"
Cooldown	600 s (don't re-alarm within 10 minutes)
Active Time Window	07:00 – 21:00
Timezone	Europe/London

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Troubleshooting

Rule fires at the wrong time of day

• Check the Timezone in Step 5. Cron is interpreted in that timezone — if it is left as UTC, 0 7 * * * fires at 07:00 UTC.
• Verify your cron expression with a cron validator tool (e.g. crontab.guru).

Rule fires slightly late

Schedule rules fire via a job queue. Under heavy server load, a firing may be a few seconds late — it will not be skipped, just delayed slightly.

Rule doesn't fire at all

• Check that the rule is enabled (green toggle on the rule card).
• Check Logs on the rule card. If the log shows "Condition failed", the trigger fired but conditions blocked the actions.
• If there are no log entries, confirm the server is healthy and check if the rule's Active Days or Active Time Window is filtering it out.

Template variable {{VW-XXXXX:pin}} shows raw placeholder in message

• The schedule trigger has an empty snapshot (no device published data at fire time). Variables still resolve from the Redis pin cache (last received value). If the device has never sent data to that pin, the variable will not resolve and shows raw.
• Confirm the device has sent at least one reading to the referenced pin.

Cron fires more often than expected (e.g. both 0 and 7 matched Sunday)

• In the 5-field cron format, both 0 and 7 represent Sunday in the day-of-week field. VWire uses standard cron — 0-7 all inclusive, with 0 and 7 both = Sunday.

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Summary

Property	Value
Fires when	Clock ticks past the configured interval or cron expression
Device data required	No — fires independent of any device
Cron format	5-field: minute hour day month weekday
Cron timezone	Set in Step 5 Options (defaults to UTC)
Template variables	Resolved from Redis cache (last value seen per pin)
Available plans	Free, Pro, Pro Plus, Enterprise