How to run scheduled jobs in Replit

Scheduled deployments run your script once per trigger, then stop. Your code must complete its work and exit cleanly — it should not start a web server or run an infinite loop. Create a Python or Node.js script that performs a single task such as fetching data from an API, sending a notification, or cleaning up a database. The script should log its progress so you can verify execution in the Logs tab later.

1# scheduled_task.py
2import os
3import datetime
4import json
5
6def main():
7    print(f"[{datetime.datetime.now().isoformat()}] Scheduled task started")
8    
9    api_key = os.getenv("API_KEY")
10    if not api_key:
11        print("ERROR: API_KEY secret not found")
12        return
13    
14    # Your periodic task logic here
15    print("Performing scheduled work...")
16    print(f"[{datetime.datetime.now().isoformat()}] Scheduled task completed")
17
18if __name__ == "__main__":
19    main()

If your scheduled script uses API keys or credentials, add them to the Secrets tool before deploying. Open the Tools dock on the left sidebar and click Secrets. Add each key-value pair under the App Secrets tab. Important: workspace Secrets do not automatically carry over to deployments. You will need to add them again in the deployment configuration in a later step. This is the number one cause of scheduled task failures.

Open your .replit file (enable Show hidden files in the file tree menu if needed) and set the deployment run command to execute your scheduled script. The deployment section tells Replit what command to run each time the schedule triggers. Make sure the run command points to your script file and includes any necessary setup steps like installing dependencies.

1# .replit
2entrypoint = "scheduled_task.py"
3
4run = "python scheduled_task.py"
5
6[deployment]
7run = ["sh", "-c", "python scheduled_task.py"]
8build = ["sh", "-c", "pip install -r requirements.txt"]
9deploymentTarget = "cloudrun"

Click the Deployments tab in the top right of your workspace. Select Scheduled as the deployment type. In the schedule field, type your desired frequency in natural language — for example 'every day at 9 AM UTC,' 'every Monday at 6 PM,' or 'every 2 hours.' Replit interprets this and shows you the parsed schedule for confirmation. Review the configuration, make sure your Secrets are added in the deployment settings, then click Deploy.

After creating the deployment, go to the deployment settings and add all Secrets your script needs. This is a separate step from workspace Secrets. Click on the deployment, find the Secrets or environment variables section, and re-enter each key-value pair. Without this step, your script will fail with undefined environment variable errors at runtime even though it works perfectly in the workspace.

After your first scheduled run triggers, check the Logs tab in the Deployments pane to verify everything worked. The Logs tab shows stdout and stderr output from each execution, including your print statements and any error messages. Look for your timestamped start and completion messages. If you see errors about missing environment variables or modules, fix the deployment configuration and redeploy.