---
type: "post"
slug: "clockwork-provides-a-native-macos-scheduler-for-local-agent-routines"
title: "Clockwork provides a native macOS scheduler for local agent routines"
description: "Clockwork wraps launchd in a menu-bar app for recurring local commands, and separates a task that needs attention from a task that failed."
retrieval_nugget: "Clockwork wraps launchd in a menu-bar app for recurring local commands, and separates a task that needs attention from a task that failed."
published_at: "2026-08-20"
updated_at: "2026-09-12"
record_date: "2026-08-20"
date_kind: "published_at"
topics: ["ai-news","agents"]
source_cluster_ref: "c0043"
source_synthesis_id: null
source_synthesis_op_ref: null
assigned_agent: "hermes"
basket_id: "bb845773-3bce-437b-aae5-d91c181b7d21"
basket_revision: 1
body_word_count: 122
schema_version: "newruntime-agent-readable-v0.2"
stable_id: "post:clockwork-provides-a-native-macos-scheduler-for-local-agent-routines"
status: "published"
source_urls: ["https://github.com/iannuttall/clockwork"]
visuals: []
editorial_provenance: {"schema_version":"newruntime-editorial-copy-v1","content_status":"source_grounded_final","final_copy_sha256":"sha256:26c4f7ee268e89b9e6b076ee703a7e918c2a5f8b78e854079472b1fedf57143a","reviewed_at":"2026-09-12T10:00:00Z","source_evidence_count":1,"verified_claim_count":2,"site_analysis_schema_version":"newruntime-site-analysis-v1","site_object_kind":"field_note","observed_fact_count":2,"implication_count":1,"watch_condition_count":1,"related_record_count":2}
analysis: {"schema_version":"newruntime-site-analysis-v1","object_kind":"field_note","thesis":"Clockwork is a menu-bar application for running recurring commands on a Mac without learning launchd.","observed_facts":[{"text":"Clockwork supports Apple silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 14 or later and registers tasks as native scheduled jobs.","source_urls":["https://github.com/iannuttall/clockwork"]},{"text":"Exit codes, stdout and stderr from the latest 50 runs are inspectable for each task.","source_urls":["https://github.com/iannuttall/clockwork"]}],"mechanism":"A task gets a name, one or more commands, and a schedule — an interval, a daily time, or selected weekdays and a time — and Clockwork registers it as a native scheduled job.","why_now":"An orange badge means a task asked for attention, and the documentation is explicit that this is separate from failure: a task can finish successfully and still report that something needs a decision.","implications":["For scheduled agent routines that is the distinction that matters, because the useful output of a recurring agent job is usually not pass or fail but a question someone has to answer."],"evidence_boundary":"This is repository documentation for a local utility: it describes behaviour and retention of the last 50 runs without reliability data or any notion of remote reporting.","watch_conditions":["The condition to watch is whether attention states can be surfaced off the machine, because a decision request that waits in a menu bar on a closed laptop is not a notification."],"related_records":[{"url":"https://newruntime.com/posts/local-coding-agents-are-becoming-shared-workspaces","relation":"Prior coverage of unattended local agent work."},{"url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/agents","relation":"Topic hub for agent operations."}]}
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editor: {"role":"editor","name":"Andrey Reshetnikov","profile":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md","profile_json":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json","same_as":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshetnikov1/","https://t.me/lapetuse"]}
---

# Clockwork provides a native macOS scheduler for local agent routines

## Retrieval answer

Clockwork wraps launchd in a menu-bar app for recurring local commands, and separates a task that needs attention from a task that failed.

Clockwork is a menu-bar application for running recurring commands on a Mac without learning launchd. A task gets a name, one or more commands, and a schedule — an interval, a daily time, or selected weekdays and a time — and Clockwork registers it as a native scheduled job. It supports Apple silicon and Intel Macs on macOS 14 or later, commands run in the same login shell form used in Terminal, and the menu shows every task, its next run and the result of its latest run.

The design detail worth borrowing is the third state. An orange badge means a task asked for attention, and the documentation is explicit that this is separate from failure: a task can finish successfully and still report that something needs a decision. Exit codes, stdout and stderr from the latest 50 runs are inspectable per task. For scheduled agent routines that is the distinction that matters, because the useful output of a recurring agent job is usually not pass or fail but a question someone has to answer.

That is the same signal design as marking an agent blocked rather than idle, which matters once [local coding agents become shared workspaces](https://newruntime.com/posts/local-coding-agents-are-becoming-shared-workspaces/) running unattended work. The [agents hub](https://newruntime.com/topics/agents/) tracks the operational surface around scheduled agent tasks.

This is repository documentation for a local utility: it describes behaviour and retention of the last 50 runs without reliability data or any notion of remote reporting. The condition to watch is whether attention states can be surfaced off the machine, because a decision request that waits in a menu bar on a closed laptop is not a notification.

Editor: [Andrey Reshetnikov](https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md), AI product and AI engineering; profile for recruiters and agents: https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json

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