cron-task-manage — Windows scheduled-task auditor (read-only)

The engine is cron-audit.js (portable Node, zero deps). Windows Task Scheduler is where unattended jobs live — a monthly rebalance or nightly sync running as a scheduled task is invisible when it silently stops, until you go looking. This tool goes looking: it runs schtasks /query /fo csv /v, parses the CSV (quoted fields with embedded commas and all), and flags the tasks that are failing, disabled, or overdue. It is read-only by construction — the single place it shells out (runQuery) only ever calls /query. To create a task, plan mode hands you the exact /create line to run yourself; the tool never executes /create, /delete, or /change.

Why it earns its place: a scheduled .bat is a commonly booby-trapped surface — one non-ASCII byte silently corrupts the whole batch parse, and a stray root file shadowing a builtin (ECHO, 12) breaks it too. When those fail, the task's Last Result goes non-zero while everything looks fine. This surfaces the non-zero code; pair it with your own Windows-failure runbook to triage the garbled-.bat root cause.

Commands

node cron-audit.js [audit] [--all | --like <substr>] [--fixture <csv>]
node cron-audit.js plan --name <name> --schedule <TYPE[@HH:MM]> --command "<cmd>"
node cron-audit.js --canary

• audit (the default — bare node cron-audit.js runs it) queries every task, filters to non-Microsoft by default, and prints a table. A leading ! marks a flagged row; the FLAGS column says why. Exit 1 if anything is flagged, else 0.
• --all includes \Microsoft\ OS tasks; --like <substr> narrows to task names containing the substring (case-insensitive), e.g. --like trading.
• --fixture <csv> parses a saved schtasks /query /fo csv /v capture offline (no shell-out at all) — useful for triaging a capture from another machine.
• plan PRINTS a schtasks /create line and exits; it runs nothing. TYPE is one of MINUTE/HOURLY/DAILY/WEEKLY/MONTHLY/ONCE/ONSTART/ONLOGON/ONIDLE; append @HH:MM for a start time.

What gets flagged

Disabled tasks are never flagged for their N/A next-run — that's expected.

Examples

• Did the monthly rebalance job run clean? node cron-audit.js audit --like rebalance — a non-zero Last Result on \Backup\monthly_rebalance means the scheduled .bat failed; check for a non-ASCII byte or a builtin-shadowing root file.
• Full non-Microsoft sweep: node cron-audit.js — every non-OS task with its state, last result, and next run; exit 1 if any are unhealthy (usable in a check).
• Triage a capture from elsewhere: save schtasks /query /fo csv /v > tasks.csv on the box, then node cron-audit.js audit --fixture tasks.csv offline.
• Get the create line for a new job (you run it): node cron-audit.js plan --name MonthlyRebalance --schedule MONTHLY@03:00 --command "C:\Scripts\rebalance.bat" prints the exact schtasks /create …; review and run it in your own shell, then re-audit to confirm it registered.

Windows notes

• PowerShell 5.1: wrap --command and the --like substring in double quotes. PS 5.1 has no &&/||; run the printed /create line on its own.
• plan refuses a --command containing a " — schtasks /tr quoting turns ambiguous; simplify the command or edit the printed line by hand.
• Windows only (needs schtasks). --fixture mode works anywhere Node runs.

Storage / output

Nothing is written. audit prints a table + a one-line summary to stdout; the flag detail goes to stderr. fixture.csv ships with the skill as a sample capture (one healthy, one failing 0x1, one disabled, one \Microsoft\ task) for --fixture demos.

Exit codes

0 clean · 1 flags found / canary failure · 2 usage error (bad args, missing fixture, non-Windows without --fixture).

Verification (the done-check)

node cron-audit.js --canary

Self-tests both directions in a throwaway temp dir: a mixed fixture flags exactly 2 (a failing Last Result + a Disabled task) and exits 1, a healthy-only fixture flags 0 and exits 0 — plus past-next-run detection, scope filtering, quoted-comma CSV parsing, plan-mode printing, and a live smoke that real schtasks /query parses to >= 0 tasks without crashing. MUST print CANARY PASS n/n before you trust a run.

node cron-audit.js --canary — MUST print CANARY PASS 35/35 before you trust a result.