Routines

Runs on: reasoning - reads what routines exist and routes you to the one you asked for; the routines themselves run on their own mechanisms (below).

The heartbeat layer. Founder OS does not sit unused: it checks in when you open it and runs any routine the moment you ask. This skill is how you find, trigger, and understand them in plain English.

Pre-flight

• If core/identity.md does not exist, stop with: Founder OS not set up here. Run /founder-os:setup first.

The heartbeat, honestly (hybrid)

There are two levels, and the difference is the whole point:

• Free local floor (default, no account). Routines fire when you OPEN the OS (the SessionStart brief already does this) and ON DEMAND when you ask or run /loop. This is a real heartbeat for anyone who opens the OS even occasionally. It is fully local and truthful.
• Unattended upgrade (opt-in). If you have synced your OS to a remote (start with the backup skill, then a remote routine on claude.ai), genuine while-you-sleep runs operate on the synced copy. This is the next level, never required, and only works because the remote can reach the synced files.

We never promise unattended local cron, and never claim a routine ran where it did not.

The routines

To run any routine now, just say its name in plain English, or use the slash command in the table. To run one repeatedly in a session, wrap it with /loop (for example /loop weekly run my weekly review).

Turning routines on

A fresh install does NOT have unattended routines running on its own - that would be a false claim. What it has:

• The on-open daily brief, active out of the box (it fires every time you open the OS).
• Every routine runnable on demand with one plain-English ask.
• An opt-in path to unattended runs once you sync (the upgrade above).

So the honest statement is: you can turn on any routine with one ask, and you can add unattended runs once your OS is synced.

Scheduling glossary (so the terms do not blur)

Four different things get called "scheduling". They are not the same:

• Native CronCreate - in-session only. Fires while the Claude Code REPL is idle, and a recurring job auto-expires after 7 days. Good for a short in-session cadence, not a reliable weekly or monthly cron.
• RemoteTrigger (claude.ai routines) - runs on claude.ai infrastructure. It cannot read your laptop, so it only helps once your OS is synced to a remote it can reach. This is the unattended upgrade.
• Cowork scheduled tasks - from 6 October 2026 new Cowork tasks on Pro and Max plans run in Anthropic's cloud. Anthropic's help pages disagree on whether a scheduled task can use local files: one says it cannot be tied to a folder on your computer, another says it can while the desktop app is open. Treat a Cowork schedule as unreliable for your OS folder. Use it for jobs that need your connectors alone (an inbox summary, say), and keep Claude Code as the OS layer.
• The old external task-runner MCP is no longer a dependency. Founder OS uses the native on-open / on-demand floor and the optional remote upgrade instead, so there is nothing extra to install.

Runtime honesty

On a web-only surface, the on-open brief and any local-script routine cannot run; say so and offer the on-demand version you can do in-session (reading files and reasoning). Never report that a routine ran on a surface that cannot run it.

Rules

• State each routine's real mechanism. Never imply unattended local cron exists.
• Never claim a routine ran where it did not.
• No em dashes or en dashes in anything you write. Hyphens only.