# Schedule local marketing work without babysitting cloud tabs
If your outreach and research still depend on leaving a browser tab open — or on a SaaS cron you cannot inspect — you already know the failure mode: the job dies when the laptop sleeps, the cloud worker hits a rate limit you cannot see, or someone has to click “Run” again at 9am.
Contents
aiFetchly is a local-first desktop AI agent. Its Task Scheduler runs on your machine with cron expressions, task dependencies, pause/resume, and execution history — so repetitive desktop marketing work can keep going without a babysitter.
Docs: https://docs.aifetchly.com/docs/automation/task-scheduling
Product: https://www.aifetchly.com
Features: https://www.aifetchly.com/features
Install: https://docs.aifetchly.com/docs/getting-started/installation
GitHub: https://github.com/robertzengcn/aiFetchly
# What the scheduler actually does
Three trigger types cover most real workflows:
| Trigger | When it fires | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Cron | Time-based (presets or custom * * * * *) |
Daily lead search, weekday campaigns |
| Dependency | After another schedule succeeds / completes / fails | Search → enrich → outreach chains |
| Manual | Only when you hit Run Now | Testing and one-offs |
You pick a task type (Market Insight search, contact extraction, outreach campaign, maps scrape, AI Message, and more), link a task ID, optionally describe the intent, then choose Active vs Inactive.
For AI Message schedules you also set the prompt, allowed tools (by risk level), optional auto-approve, and safety limits: max tool calls, max runtime, max continue cycles. That is how you keep a scheduled agent from running away overnight.
# A practical pipeline
A pattern that matches how makers actually work:
- Cron — weekdays 9:00: Market Insight / maps search for a city + niche
- Dependency (on success) — Contact Profile Insights on those results
- Dependency (+30–60 min) — AI Message to rank leads / draft notes
- Dependency — Outreach Campaign when the draft step succeeds
Pause any link in the chain without deleting it. Resume when you are ready. History shows start/end, duration, status, and errors so you can debug a bad Tuesday without guessing.
Cron presets include every hour, daily midnight, weekdays 9 AM, weekends 10 AM, plus a custom builder. The UI shows next run so you can catch a wrong expression before it fires every minute.
# Why local cron still matters in 2026
Cloud automation is fine until you need:
- Data that should not leave the machine
- Tools that only work on the desktop (local MCP, local files, local browser state)
- A pause button that actually pauses your agent, not a shared worker
aiFetchly’s scheduler is built for that: local cron + dependencies + pause/resume + history, wired into the same agent that already does research and outreach.
# Try it
- Install from https://docs.aifetchly.com/docs/getting-started/installation
- Open Schedule → New Schedule
- Start with a simple weekday cron + one search task
- Add a dependency step only after “Run Now” looks healthy
Open source. Local-first. Fewer orphaned tabs.
—
aiFetchly · https://www.aifetchly.com · https://github.com/robertzengcn/aiFetchly