Getting Started

cronbase is a self-hosted cron job manager that replaces crontab -e with a modern web dashboard. It runs your jobs, captures output, tracks history, and sends alerts when things go wrong.

Quick Start with Docker

The fastest way to try cronbase — no prerequisites needed:

docker run -d \
  --name cronbase \
  -p 7433:7433 \
  -v cronbase-data:/data \
  ghcr.io/paperkite-hq/cronbase

Open http://localhost:7433 — the dashboard is live.

Add your first job:

docker exec cronbase cronbase add \
  --name "hello" \
  --schedule "*/5 * * * *" \
  --command "echo Hello from cronbase!"

Trigger it immediately:

docker exec cronbase cronbase run hello

Running: hello (echo Hello from cronbase!)
✓ success (2.1ms, exit 0)

--- stdout ---
Hello from cronbase!

Or use Docker Compose for a persistent setup:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paperkite-hq/cronbase/main/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d

Install from source

If you prefer running directly with Bun (v1.0 or later):

git clone https://github.com/paperkite-hq/cronbase.git
cd cronbase && bun install && bun link

cronbase add --name "hello" --schedule "*/5 * * * *" --command "echo Hello!"
cronbase start   # → http://localhost:7433

bun link makes the cronbase executable available on your PATH. If you'd rather not link globally, invoke the CLI as bun run src/cli.ts <command> from the repo root.

Explore the dashboard

Once cronbase is running, open http://localhost:7433 in your browser. The dashboard shows:

• Job list — all registered jobs with status, schedule, and next run time
• Execution history — every run with stdout/stderr, duration, and exit code
• Statistics — success rate, total executions, enabled job count
• Job management — create, edit, enable/disable, and trigger jobs from the UI

View execution history

From the CLI:

cronbase history

Job                  Status     Duration   Exit   Attempt  Started
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
hello                ✓ success  2.1ms      0      0        3/18/2025, 2:05:00 PM

What's next?

• Configuration — YAML config files, environment variables, timeouts, retries
• Alerting — Slack, Discord, and webhook notifications
• Docker — Docker Compose, config files, and health checks
• Migration — Import jobs from your existing crontab
• CLI Reference — All commands and options