Routines

A routine is a saved cloud task: a name, instructions, a model, and what starts it. When its time comes, Perch starts a cloud agent with your instructions as the first message. It runs in a private cloud workspace, so your computer can be off. Afterwards you open the run's chat, read what it did, and keep talking if you want more.

Routines suit work you would otherwise ask for again and again: a morning bug review on a repository, a weekday pass over a support inbox, a weekly metrics summary, or a check your own tooling starts after each deploy.

Create a routine

Or ask Perch

In any Perch Terminal chat, on the web, in Perch Desktop, or in the CLI, describe the routine you want, or type /schedule (/routines works too). Perch asks for anything it is missing, then shows a card with everything it will save: the name, the full instructions, the schedule in your time zone with the next run, the model, connections, repository, and settings.

Nothing is saved until you approve the card. It appears in every permission mode, Take the Wheel included, and Auto Review never approves it for you. Unless you name others, the routine uses the model the chat is using and your device's time zone.

A routine's own runs cannot create or change routines.

Triggers

Schedule

Every schedule runs in the time zone you pick, so a daylight saving change does not move it. A routine runs at most once an hour, and a custom schedule that would run more often is refused.

API

Use the API trigger to start a routine from a deploy script, a monitoring alert, or another app. When you save, Perch shows a secret token once. Copy it then.

On the routine's page, Trigger from another app shows the address and an example request:

curl -X POST https://chat.perchai.app/api/routines/fire \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "..."}'

• text is optional, up to 2,000 characters. It reaches the run as data, never as orders, so Perch uses it only the way your instructions say. For example: "The alert text is attached. Find its cause in the repo."
• Perch answers with 202 and the new run's runId and chatUrl.
• One routine can be started this way up to 30 times an hour.
• Make a new token replaces the token, and the old one stops working. Delete token turns the API trigger off.

Run now

Every routine has Run now on its page, whatever its trigger. Select Add a note first to send extra text with that one run.

Settings

Connections

A routine can use only the connections you add on this tab. None are picked for you. You can add any app you have connected in Settings › Connections, up to 10 per routine.

Routines run in the cloud, so local MCP servers configured on your computer are not available to them, the same as for any cloud agent.

Behavior

• Ask before risky actions is the default. A run waits for your approval before anything risky, and its status reads Waiting for you. The Routines page shows A run is waiting for your approval with a Review button that opens the chat. An approval left unanswered for 24 hours expires.
• Run without asking lets Perch do what the instructions say without stopping, including making changes through its connections. Use it for tasks you have watched run before.
• New chat each run is the default. Keep one chat makes each run continue the last one, so it can tell you what changed since.

Notifications

Tell me decides when you hear about a run:

• After every run (the default)
• Only when there's something to report. Each run says whether it found anything. A run that found nothing shows Nothing to report and does not notify you.
• Only when a run fails
• Never

Below it, choose Phone notification, Email, or both. Phone notifications need Perch on your Home Screen. The email names the routine and the outcome, starts with the beginning of the answer, and links to the chat.

Unless Tell me is set to Never, Perch always emails you when a run fails, waits for your approval, or cannot start, even with Email unticked.

Follow your routines

The Routines list shows each routine's schedule, its next run, how its last run went, and an on/off switch. A count marks results you have not opened yet.

Open a routine to see its runs: when each started, what started it (Schedule, API, or Run now), how it went, and how long it took. Open chat opens a run's chat. Routine chats stay out of your chat list, so a routine that runs every hour does not bury your other work. Each one is a normal cloud chat: ask a follow-up, answer an approval, or review a branch in the Changes panel.

A scheduled run is skipped, and the next one goes ahead as planned, when:

• The routine's last run is still going. Two runs of one routine never start at the same time.
• The last run is waiting for your approval and the routine keeps one chat.
• Perch could not start it within 30 minutes of its time.
• You already had three cloud runs going for 30 minutes after its time.
• You had reached the daily limit of cloud runs, or used this period's cloud workspace hours.

To change a routine, open it and select Edit from the More actions menu. The switch turns it off and on. Delete removes the routine but keeps its chats.

If a routine's model is no longer offered, Perch turns the routine off and says so rather than switching models on its own. Choose another model, then turn it back on.

Usage and limits

• Up to 20 routines can be on at once.
• Once an hour at most for each routine.
• Each run is a cloud agent run. Model usage counts toward your plan's normal limits, and workspace time counts toward the 30 hours of cloud workspace time per billing period. Routine runs share the limit of three cloud runs at a time with your other cloud chats.

Troubleshooting

I do not see Routines. Routines come with Pro. Check that you are signed in to your Pro account.

My schedule is refused. A routine can run at most once an hour, and a Once time has to be in the future.

A run says Skipped. The reason is shown next to it. The list above covers each one.

I did not get an email. Check that Tell me is not set to Never, and look in your spam folder. If Perch cannot send email at the moment, the routine's page says so.