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Scheduling and Background Work

Schedules let Talon trigger agent work later or repeatedly.

What a schedule does

A schedule stores:

  • when work should run
  • which namespace it belongs to
  • which agent or session it targets
  • the input message and enablement state

Execution model

The scheduler does not execute agent work directly.

Instead:

  1. a scheduler backend decides when a schedule should fire
  2. the worker receives a wakeup
  3. the worker claims the runnable schedule
  4. the worker dispatches the actual session work

Local mode

In the default Docker compose stack, Talon uses the local_postgres scheduler backend with a shared secret for wakeup authentication.

For a same-host SQLite deployment, Talon also supports local_sqlite. In that mode, the scheduler stores wakeups in the same local SQLite database used by the control plane.

Use:

  • TALON_SCHEDULER_DRIVER=local_postgres for the current local Postgres stack
  • TALON_SCHEDULER_DRIVER=local_sqlite for a same-host SQLite deployment

Both local backends expect the gateway and worker to access the database from the same machine.

In the smallest same-host setup, Talon can pair local_sqlite scheduling with the local_socket message broker so wakeups and worker dispatch both stay local to the machine.

Cloud mode

The codebase also supports Cloud Tasks-backed scheduler callbacks with either:

  • shared-secret auth
  • Google OIDC callback auth

On AWS, Talon supports EventBridge Scheduler-backed wakeups. EventBridge Scheduler creates one-time wakeups and targets the Talon SQS worker queue; Talon still owns recurrence, claiming, status updates, and re-arming. Use TALON_SCHEDULER_DRIVER=aws_eventbridge_scheduler with SQS worker pull mode.

LocalStack can validate EventBridge Scheduler create/get/delete calls, but its Scheduler implementation does not fire targets into SQS. Use Talon’s local scheduler backends for deterministic end-to-end schedule execution tests, and keep real AWS Scheduler-to-SQS smoke tests opt-in.

Why this matters

Schedules are part of the same durable control plane as sessions and agents. They are not an external cron wrapper bolted onto the side.

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