Schedule work with routines

A routine is work that a teammate does by itself, on a schedule. This guide shows how to switch on a template, make your own routine, run it now, pause it, and give it to another teammate.

Before you begin

• Owners and admins make and change routines, because each run uses the AI plan of your organization.
• Members, approvers and viewers read every routine. Guests do not see Routines or the Calendar.
• The teammate needs a connected AI plan. See Connect your AI plan.
• Some templates wait for a service that the role reads, such as Stripe or PostHog.

How a routine works

A routine belongs to one teammate. It has a title, instructions and a schedule. At each time of the schedule, the teammate does the instructions in a run.

• Each routine has one task on the board. Each run puts its answer on that task as a comment.
• A routine posts each result to its own conversation with the teammate, or it runs quietly.
• A routine does one run at a time. If the last run did not end, Troopy skips that time.
• While the task of the routine waits in Needs you, the routine does not run. Answer the question on the task, and the routine continues.

The Routines page also lists the work that starts when something happens: a trigger. See Start work when something happens.

Find your way on the Routines page

Open Routines in the sidebar. Under it, the sidebar shows Your routines and Templates.

A card shows 3 rows at first: each routine that exists, then templates while there is room. To see the other templates, select the line under the rows, such as Show 2 more templates.

Needs a look shows a routine that did not start the last time. It also shows a trigger that waits for its secret, and a trigger whose teammate left.

Switch on a template

A template is a ready routine of a role, with its instructions and a default time. You can change both after you switch it on.

1. Find the template

   On Your routines, find the grey row in the card of the teammate. Or open Templates for every role.

2. Read what it does

   Select the row. The dialog shows How it works and What you get. The whole page, with a sample opens more.

3. Switch it on

   Select Switch it on, or use the switch of the row. The routine gets the time zone of your browser.

On the Templates page, Switch it on also hires the role when nobody in your troop has it. A template that waits for a service shows Connect Stripe first, or the name of its service. That link opens Settings > Apps.

These routine templates come with Troopy:

Make a routine

1. On Routines, select New routine.
2. Under On a schedule, for, select the teammate.
3. In Title, type a short name, such as "Friday wrap-up".
4. In Instructions, write what to do each time: the goal, the steps, and where the result goes.
5. Set Repeats, the time, and the days under On.
6. Under When it finishes, select Notify me or Run quietly.
7. Select Create routine.

Write the instructions as a brief to a teammate. See Give your troop work that it can finish.

Choose when it runs

The choices of Repeats are every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes, hourly, and every 2, 3, 4, 6 or 12 hours. The form says how many times a repeating routine runs each day.

A cron expression has five fields: minute, hour, day of the month, month and day of the week. A field takes numbers, *, lists, ranges and steps. Troopy does not read names, such as MON, or @daily. The form shows the next 3 runs of the expression.

A new routine gets the time zone of your browser. When you change a routine, it keeps its own time zone. Thus its runs stay at the same hour for each person.

Choose where the results go

• Notify me posts each result to the conversation of the routine. Select Results to open it.
• Run quietly keeps each result in its run, with no message. The run still puts its answer on the task.

Run, pause, change or delete a routine

Owners and admins open the menu of a routine with the button with three dots on its row. The menu has these actions:

The switch on the row pauses the routine, or turns it on again. A paused routine keeps its settings.

When you hand a routine to another teammate, its next run starts a new conversation with that teammate. The routine keeps its template only when the new teammate has the same role. Hand to another teammate shows only when the troop has two teammates or more.

When you delete a routine, its task on the board ends. Its conversation and its past runs stay. A routine from a template comes back as a grey template row, switched off.

Read the results of a routine

Select a routine to open it. The dialog shows the instructions and these facts:

Recent runs lists the last 6 runs, each with a mark: done, failed, or at work. Select a run to read its steps. See See what your troop did.

Owners and admins also see Pause or Resume, and Run now. Open in Name's settings opens the settings of the teammate, where its Routines section shows each routine whole.

When a run of a routine ends or fails, the bell tells the person who made the routine. Without that person, it tells the owners and admins. See Choose your notifications.

See the routines on the Calendar

Open Calendar in the sidebar. It shows the routines on a schedule in your time zone.

• Week shows each run of a routine of one run a day on a grid of hours. The runs that ended show their mark.
• Month shows 3 runs on each day, then +N more.
• Agenda lists the routines by how often they run: Every day, Weekdays, Weekly, Some days and Custom.
• A routine that repeats in a day is not on the grid. It shows on the strip Runs continuously, over the grid.
• Select the name of a teammate to hide its routines, or to show them again.
• Select a routine to open the same dialog as on Routines.

Let a teammate propose a routine

You can ask a teammate for a routine in a chat, such as "every Monday at 8, send me the numbers". The teammate proposes a routine for its own work. Only the Chief of Staff proposes work for another teammate.

The proposal makes nothing until an owner or admin approves it. It waits under Proposed by your teammates on Routines, and in Needs you. The card says the routine in plain words: the teammate, the times and the instructions.

• The routine belongs to the person who approves it.
• A proposed routine with no time zone gets the time zone of the workspace. If the workspace has none, it gets the time zone of the person who approves it in the app. An approval from Telegram or the API gives UTC.
• No standing rule approves a proposal. See Stay in control of your troop.

Troopy refuses some proposals before a person sees them:

• a routine that runs more often in a day than its teammate can
• the same proposal again, while the first one waits
• a second routine for the same work from another teammate
• a proposal from work that an event from outside started

Limits

All the runs of a teammate count toward its limit of runs in a day, from routines, chats and tasks. See Limits and defaults.

Problems

A row with Last time: and a reason shows why the last run did not start. The routine tries again at its next time.

Related

• Start work when something happens
• Add and manage skills
• Stay in control of your troop
• Use Home
• Choose your notifications