cronstable: an open-source job scheduler with a built-in MCP server for agent-driven triage
ptweezy · reddit · 2026-10-02
Developer ptweezy released cronstable, an MIT-licensed open-source job scheduler (official successor to yacron) with a built-in MCP server, letting agents read jobs, logs, and run history to answer "what's failing and why?".
Implementation details: plain Python on the existing aiohttp server (no official SDK, enabling 38 prebuilt binaries); stateless server supporting multiple MCP protocol revisions over Streamable HTTP and stdio; 35 tools across four toolsets with 19 read-only tools on by default; cronwhynorun explains schedule misses field by field; tool errors list accepted arguments so agents can self-correct.
Security: read-only by default, writes require config plus confirm: true, backfills dry-run by default, REST bearer-token scopes gate tools, and the daemon refuses to start if MCP would be exposed unauthenticated. The author uses it for backups, Minecraft snapshots, and pipelines, and sells a $2.99 iOS companion app for approving workflow gates. Full setup commands included (docker compose demo with an intentionally failing job).
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