Schedules: cron-triggered functions

Trigger InsForge edge functions on a cron schedule with pg_cron: secret-aware headers, encrypted keys, job logs, retry guidance, and keep-alive tips.

Schedules invoke functions on a recurring cron expression. pg_cron fires an HTTP request to the function URL at each tick and logs the result.

Concepts

A schedule is a cron expression, a target URL, and headers. On creation, ${{secrets.KEY}} placeholders in headers are resolved and encrypted with pgcrypto. At each tick, execute_job() decrypts headers, calls the function, and writes status and duration to schedules.job_logs.

Usage

Standard 5-field cron (no seconds). Reference secrets in headers instead of hardcoding keys.

*/5 * * * *   every 5 minutes
0 * * * *     every hour
0 0 * * *     daily at midnight
0 9 * * 1     every Monday at 9am
0 0 1 * *     first of every month

Create via dashboard or SQL:

select schedules.create_job(
  name       => 'daily-cleanup',
  schedule   => '0 0 * * *',
  url        => 'https://myapp.functions.insforge.app/cleanup',
  headers    => jsonb_build_object('Authorization', 'Bearer ${{secrets.CRON_TOKEN}}')
);

Limits

Minimum interval is 1 minute (pg_cron). Failed runs are logged but not retried, so the function must be idempotent. Deleting a referenced secret breaks every job using it until you update or disable the schedule.

Long-interval callers and keep-alive

The backend closes idle HTTP connections after 65 seconds by default (configurable with KEEP_ALIVE_TIMEOUT_MS). A job that fires less often than that — every 5 minutes, for example — always finds a reused keep-alive socket already closed on the server side. This can stall the first request in a warm function for ~30 seconds.

When a scheduled function calls other APIs, you have two options. Set a short client timeout (well under 30 seconds) and retry once on a fresh connection. Or disable connection reuse by sending Connection: close so every tick opens a fresh socket.

More resources

• pg_cron docs for cron syntax.
• Functions overview for the runtime.
• crontab.guru to check an expression.