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Schedule trigger

The Scheduler trigger starts a workflow on a timetable: every N milliseconds, or on a cron expression.

The Scheduler inspector with Schedule Type set to Cron Expression, the cron field set to 0 9 * * 1-5, the examples box below it and the timezone set to Europe/London.The Scheduler inspector with Schedule Type set to Cron Expression, the cron field set to 0 9 * * 1-5, the examples box below it and the timezone set to Europe/London.

When to use it

  • Hourly, daily or weekly syncs.
  • Batch reports.
  • Checking an API that has no webhooks.

Configuration

Field Notes
Schedule Type Interval or Cron Expression. See Known limitations for One Time and Webhook Triggered.
Interval For Interval. In milliseconds, minimum 1000. Quick picks: 1 min, 5 min, 15 min, 1 hour, 1 day.
Cron Expression For Cron. Five fields, or six with a leading seconds field. See Cron reference.
Payload (JSON) Optional fields passed to every run. Enter one "key": "value" pair per line. Values are stored as text.
Schedule Enabled On by default. When off, the schedule does not fire.

Cron reference

Five fields:

Position Field Values
1 Minute 0 to 59
2 Hour 0 to 23
3 Day of month 1 to 31
4 Month 1 to 12
5 Day of week 0 to 7 (0 and 7 are both Sunday)

* means every value, so * * * * * runs every minute.

Six fields add seconds at the front: <second> <minute> <hour> <day> <month> <weekday>.

Each field takes *, a number, a list (1,15), a range (9-17) or a step (*/5). Use numbers for months and weekdays: names such as MON are not supported.

Cron Meaning
0 9 * * * Every day at 09:00
*/5 * * * * Every 5 minutes
0 0 * * 0 Every Sunday at midnight
0 9-17 * * 1-5 Every hour from 09:00 to 17:00, Monday to Friday
0 0 1 * * The first day of each month at midnight
30 14 * * 3 Every Wednesday at 14:30
0 */5 * * * * Every 5 minutes (six-field form, as in the editor's examples)

Day of month and day of week must both match. Standard cron fires when either matches. In Flero, 0 9 1 * 1 fires only when the 1st of the month is a Monday.

Time zone

Cron times are evaluated on the Flero server's clock. The Timezone field is saved with the trigger, but the scheduler does not apply it yet. See Known limitations.

If you need a local time, convert it to the server's time zone when you write the cron expression, and check the first runs in the execution history.

Trigger data

Each run gets this trigger data:

{
  "triggeredBy": "scheduler",
  "schedulerNodeId": "...",
  "triggerTime": "2026-10-13T09:00:00.000Z",
  "region": "emea"
}

Every key of Payload sits at the top level, so the example's region is {{ $trigger.region }}. Read the fire time with {{ $trigger.triggerTime }}.

Activating the schedule

  1. Save the workflow.
  2. Set the workflow to Active in the editor toolbar's version menu.
  3. The schedule arms. The first run happens at the next matching time, or one interval from now.

Scheduled runs use the workflow's active version. An inactive workflow does not fire, even when its time passes.

Known limitations

Setting Current behaviour
Schedule Type: One Time Does not fire. The editor saves the time in a field the scheduler does not read. Use a cron expression for a specific time, then set the workflow inactive after it runs.
Schedule Type: Webhook Triggered Does not register anything. Use the Webhook trigger.
Timezone Saved but not applied. Cron times follow the server's clock.
Max Executions Saved but not enforced. The schedule keeps firing until you disable it or set the workflow inactive.

Best practices

  • Missed times are not replayed. If Flero is unavailable when a schedule is due, that run is skipped and the next one happens on time. For "fetch everything since the last run", store the last processed timestamp or id in your data rather than relying on the clock.
  • Keep the run shorter than the interval. A workflow scheduled every minute that takes 90 seconds builds a backlog.
  • Spread heavy schedules. Many workflows at 0 0 * * * start at once. Use 5 0 * * *, 10 0 * * *, and so on.
  • */5 means minutes divisible by 5 (00, 05, 10, …), not "every 5 minutes from now". For "every 5 minutes from activation", use Interval with 300000.

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