Anthropic Adds Routines to Claude Code — Schedule, API & GitHub Triggers for 24/7 Autonomous Execution

Anthropic added the “Routines” research preview feature to Claude Code around May 2026. Once you define a prompt, target repositories, and required connectors, the cloud environment can execute the task autonomously based on specified triggers.

📑Table of Contents

1. What is Routines
2. Trigger Types and Combinations
3. Creation and Management Steps
4. Usage Limits and Pricing Plans
5. Practical Use Cases
6. Troubleshooting
7. Summary
8. Frequently Asked Questions
9. Trigger Type Comparison

Previously, Claude Code was primarily used for manual operations or local execution. With Routines, it becomes possible to run agent-like workflows 24/7. Developers can power off their laptops while the cloud side continues processing.

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What is Routines

Routines is a mechanism to run saved Claude Code configurations autonomously on the cloud. Specifically, it saves a task’s prompt, target repositories, and connectors such as MCP servers as a single unit.

The saved Routines runs independently on Anthropic’s cloud infrastructure. Even if the user closes the browser or desktop app, processing starts when the configured trigger fires.

The official documentation defines it as “Routine = saved Claude Code configuration (prompt + repositories + connectors) that runs autonomously on Anthropic cloud infrastructure.”

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Trigger Types and Combinations

Routines supports three main trigger types.

1. Schedule trigger: Recurring (daily, weekly) or one-off at a specific date/time.
2. API trigger: Triggered via HTTP POST request with bearer token authentication, either manually or from external systems.
3. GitHub trigger: Responds to PR events such as opened, closed, assigned, labeled, and Release events. Filters for author, labels, branch, draft, and merged are also available.

By combining these, you can create complex workflows such as “every Monday, organize the backlog and automatically review PRs with specific labels.”

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Creation and Management Steps

Routines can be created from the Web UI (claude.ai/code/routines), desktop app, or CLI (/schedule command).

After creation, you can list, edit, pause, or delete routines. Execution history is available as sessions.

Adding or modifying triggers from the management screen is straightforward, and multiple Routines can run in parallel.

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Usage Limits and Pricing Plans

Routines is available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. There is a daily cap on routine runs, counted separately from subscription usage.

One-off runs do not count against the daily cap. Overages can be handled with usage credits.

Organization policies can disable Routines.

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Practical Use Cases

The main use cases highlighted in the official documentation include:

• Backlog maintenance: Weekly schedule + issue tracker connector to automatically organize pending tasks.
• Alert triage: Immediate response via API trigger from monitoring systems.
• Custom code review: Automatic review of qualifying pull requests via GitHub PR trigger.
• Deploy verification: Automatic test execution via API trigger after CD completion.
• Documentation drift detection: Periodic schedule to check for divergence between docs and code.
• Library porting: Automatic porting triggered by merged PRs.

The key advantage is the ability to offload repetitive daily tasks and event-driven processes to the cloud.

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Troubleshooting

Common issues and workarounds:

• /schedule command not visible: Often caused by using a Console API key or certain environment variables. Use the Web UI instead.
• Disabled by organization policy: Requires admin privileges to enable Routines.
• Daily run cap reached: Use one-off runs or consider upgrading the plan.

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Related articles:

• Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 Release — Next-Gen Models for Long-Running Complex Tasks
• Anthropic Launches Claude Managed Agents for Enterprise AI Workflows
• Anthropic Fable 5 and Mythos 5 Access Halted by U.S. Export Rules

Summary

The Routines feature in Claude Code allows developers to set up tasks once and have them run continuously and autonomously in the cloud. The three trigger types—schedule, API, and GitHub events—can be flexibly combined to significantly reduce operational overhead.

As this is a research preview, limits and supported connectors may change. Check the official documentation for the latest information.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can Routines be used on the free plan?

No. It requires a paid plan such as Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise.

Q: How is the execution limit managed?

There is a separate daily cap for routine runs, independent of subscription usage. One-off executions do not count toward the cap.

Q: Which GitHub events are supported by the trigger?

It supports PR opened, closed, assigned, labeled, and Release events. Filters for author, labels, branch, etc., are also available.

Q: How can I view and edit created Routines?

You can list, edit, pause, or delete them from the Web UI, desktop app, or CLI. Past executions are viewable as sessions.

Q: How do I add connectors?

Add MCP servers to your claude.ai account to make them available to Routines.

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Trigger Type Comparison

Trigger	Activation Method	Primary Uses	Characteristics
Schedule	Recurring / specific datetime	Backlog maintenance, drift detection	No manual intervention needed for periodic execution
API	HTTP POST	Alert triage, deploy verification	Easy integration with external systems
GitHub	PR / Release events	Code review, library porting	Tightly integrated with development workflow

Source: Anthropic Official Documentation (https://code.claude.com/docs/en/routines) (as of June 2026)