Note

This project was ~90% vibe-coded and is being archived due to maintenance difficulties and a few persistent bugs. I've restarted it from scratch, by the time you read this, the new version is either in active development or already released. If you enjoyed this project or are interested in contributing or trying out the new features, check out the new repository: lazycron

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lazy-cron

A fast, keyboard-driven terminal UI for managing cron jobs on Linux.

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Why lazy-cron?

Cron syntax is powerful but unintuitive. You shouldn't need to memorize that 0 9 * * 1-5 means "weekdays at 9am" or google what the fifth field does. lazy-cron gives you a visual, interactive scheduler right in your terminal — with live human-readable descriptions, vim-style navigation, and zero config required.

 lazy-cron  v0.1.0   [/] filter:all

 #    S  SRC      SCHEDULE               COMMAND                              NEXT RUN
 1    *  user     */5 * * * *            /usr/bin/backup.sh                   3m 12s
 2    *  user     @daily                 /home/user/cleanup.sh                18h 4m
 3    -  user     0 12 * * *             /usr/bin/notify.sh                   disabled
 4    *  system   17 *  * * *            cd / && run-parts --report ...       43m 0s

 a add  e edit  d del  space toggle  ? help  q quit

Screenshots:

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Features

Job management

• List all cron jobs: user crontab + /etc/crontab + /etc/cron.d/*
• Add, edit, delete user cron jobs
• Enable/disable individual jobs with a single keypress
• Shows next scheduled run time for every job

Visual schedule builder

• Five interactive columns: MINUTE, HOUR, DAY, MONTH, WEEKDAY — each color-coded
• Four modes per field: all (*), every (*/n), at (specific value), range (n-m)
• Press m to cycle modes, j/k to scroll values, h/l to move between fields
• Live human-readable description: "At 09:30, on weekdays (Mon-Fri)"

Raw mode

• Toggle between visual builder and raw text input with ctrl+e
• Schedule presets in both modes with ctrl+p

Navigation

• Vim-style keys throughout (j/k, g/G, h/l)
• Filter by source or status: all, user, system, enabled, disabled

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Installation

One-liner (recommended)

Works on Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL, and any Linux distro. Auto-detects your system and installs the right package format.

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/domenez-dev/lazy-cron/main/install.sh)"

Arch Linux (AUR) (Soon..)

Download a package manually

Grab the latest .deb, .rpm, or binary archive from the releases page.

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i lazy-cron_*.deb

# Fedora / RHEL / CentOS / openSUSE
sudo rpm -i lazy-cron-*.rpm

From source

Requires Go 1.21+.

git clone https://github.com/domenez-dev/lazy-cron.git
cd lazy-cron
make install    # builds and installs to /usr/local/bin

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Usage

lazy-cron

Run with sudo to also edit system cron jobs in /etc/crontab and /etc/cron.d/:

sudo lazy-cron

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Keybindings

Main list

Key	Action
j / k	Move down / up
g / G	Jump to top / bottom
a	Add new cron job
e	Edit selected job
d	Delete selected job
space / t	Toggle enable/disable
r	Reload from disk
/	Cycle filter
?	Toggle help panel
q	Quit

Schedule builder

Key	Action
h / l or ← / →	Previous / next field
j / k or ↓ / ↑	Scroll options in current field
m	Cycle mode (all, every, at, range)
ctrl+e	Toggle raw text input
ctrl+p	Cycle schedule presets
tab	Jump to command field
ctrl+s	Save
esc	Cancel

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Schedule description examples

Expression	Description
*/5 * * * *	Every 5 minutes
0 10 * * *	At 10:00
0 0 * * *	At midnight (00:00)
30 9 * * 5	At 09:30, on Fridays
0 9-17 * * 1-5	From 09:00 to 17:00, on weekdays (Mon-Fri)
0 0 * 1 *	At midnight (00:00), in January
@reboot	At system startup
@daily	Once a day at midnight

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Notes

• Only user cron jobs can be added/edited/deleted without root.
• System jobs in /etc/crontab and /etc/cron.d/ are read-only unless you run with sudo.
• Writes go through crontab -l / crontab -, so existing comments, env vars, and formatting are preserved.

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

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License

MIT — Copyright (c) 2024 domenez-dev