Configure when and how often your journeys run with intervals and cron schedules.

Scheduling

Configure when your journeys run using simple intervals or flexible cron expressions.

Schedule Types

Interval Scheduling

Run journeys at fixed intervals:

Interval	Runs per Day	Best For
1 minute	1,440	Critical paths, real-time monitoring
5 minutes	288	Important flows
15 minutes	96	Standard monitoring
30 minutes	48	Less critical paths
1 hour	24	Low-priority checks

Schedule:
  Type: interval
  Every: 5 minutes

Cron Scheduling

For more control, use cron expressions:

Schedule:
  Type: cron
  Expression: "0 9 * * 1-5"  # 9 AM, weekdays only

Cron Expression Format

┌───────────── minute (0-59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0-23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0-6, Sunday=0)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *

Common Cron Examples

Schedule	Cron Expression	Description
Every hour	`0 * * * *`	At minute 0 of every hour
Daily at midnight	`0 0 * * *`	12:00 AM every day
Daily at 9 AM	`0 9 * * *`	9:00 AM every day
Weekdays at 9 AM	`0 9 * * 1-5`	9:00 AM Monday-Friday
Every 6 hours	`0 /6 * *`	At 00:00, 06:00, 12:00, 18:00
First day of month	`0 0 1 * *`	Midnight on the 1st
Every 15 minutes	`/15 * * *`	:00, :15, :30, :45

Use crontab.guru to build and validate cron expressions.

Timezone

All schedules run in UTC by default. To use a specific timezone:

Schedule:
  Type: cron
  Expression: "0 9 * * *"
  Timezone: America/New_York

Common timezones:

UTC - Coordinated Universal Time
America/New_York - Eastern Time
America/Los_Angeles - Pacific Time
Europe/London - British Time
Europe/Berlin - Central European Time
Asia/Tokyo - Japan Standard Time

Run Windows

Restrict runs to specific time windows:

Schedule:
  Type: interval
  Every: 5 minutes
  Window:
    Start: "09:00"
    End: "17:00"
    Days: [Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday]
    Timezone: America/New_York

This runs every 5 minutes, but only during business hours.

Multi-Location Scheduling

When running from multiple locations, each location runs independently:

Schedule:
  Type: interval
  Every: 5 minutes
Locations:
  - us-east
  - eu-west
  - ap-southeast

This results in 3 runs every 5 minutes (one per location).

Staggered Runs

Spread runs across time to avoid simultaneous load:

Schedule:
  Type: interval
  Every: 5 minutes
  Stagger: true  # Offsets each location by ~1.5 minutes

Pause and Resume

Manual Pause

Temporarily stop a journey without deleting it:

Go to the journey
Click Pause
Journey stops running but configuration is preserved

Scheduled Maintenance Windows

Automatically pause during known maintenance:

Maintenance:
  - Start: "2024-01-15T02:00:00Z"
    End: "2024-01-15T04:00:00Z"
    Reason: "Database migration"

During maintenance windows:

Runs are skipped
No alerts are triggered
Status shows "Maintenance"

Run Limits

Control resource usage with run limits:

Limits:
  Max Concurrent Runs: 1        # Only one run at a time
  Max Runs per Hour: 12         # Cap at 12 runs/hour
  Timeout: 60 seconds           # Max run duration
  Retry Failed: true            # Retry on failure
  Max Retries: 2                # Maximum retry attempts

Setting very frequent intervals (1 minute) for long-running journeys can cause runs to overlap. Use Max Concurrent Runs: 1 to prevent this.

Priority Levels

Set priority for resource allocation:

Priority	Description	Use Case
High	Runs first, guaranteed resources	Critical business flows
Normal	Standard scheduling	Most journeys
Low	Runs when resources available	Nice-to-have checks

Priority: high

Triggering Runs

Manual Trigger

Run a journey immediately:

Go to the journey
Click Run Now

Or via API:

curl -X POST https://api.tracer/v1/journeys/{id}/run \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Webhook Trigger

Trigger runs from external systems:

Triggers:
  Webhook:
    Enabled: true
    Secret: your-webhook-secret

Trigger URL:

POST https://api.tracer/v1/webhooks/journey/{id}/trigger
X-Webhook-Secret: your-webhook-secret

CI/CD Integration

Run journeys as part of deployment:

# GitHub Actions example
- name: Run smoke tests
  run: |
    curl -X POST https://api.tracer/v1/journeys/run-tag/smoke \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.IZLI_API_KEY }}"

Schedule Best Practices

1. Match Interval to Criticality

Criticality	Recommended Interval
Critical (checkout, login)	1-5 minutes
Important (core features)	5-15 minutes
Standard (other features)	15-30 minutes
Low priority	1 hour

2. Consider Time Zones

If your users are global, run from multiple locations. If regional, schedule during active hours.

3. Avoid Peak Times

Don't schedule resource-intensive journeys during peak traffic. Use off-peak windows for comprehensive tests.

4. Account for Dependencies

If journey A depends on data created by journey B, schedule them appropriately:

# Journey B: Create test data (runs first)
Schedule: "0 */4 * * *"  # Every 4 hours

# Journey A: Uses test data (runs after)
Schedule: "5 */4 * * *"  # 5 minutes after B

5. Set Realistic Timeouts

Timeout: 60 seconds  # Allow enough time for slow networks

Consider:

Network latency from test location
Page load times
Third-party service response times

Scheduling

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