Schedule publication
Configure automated, recurring article generation from your briefs.
Schedule publication
Set a brief to generate articles automatically on a recurring schedule -- every morning, twice a day, or once a week. Instead of triggering each article by hand, you define a cadence and EarlyForge does the rest.
Scheduled publishing is available on Pro and above.
How scheduling works
EarlyForge checks your active briefs continuously. When a brief's schedule matches the current time, it triggers the full generation process -- discovery, content retrieval, and article writing. The resulting article appears in your dashboard ready for review, or is published automatically if you have configured a destination.
The schedule format
Schedules use a cron-style format of five fields separated by spaces:
minute hour day-of-month month day-of-weekEach field accepts a number, * (any), a range (1-5), a list (8,18), or a step (*/6). The wizard shows a plain-English preview of whatever you enter, so you always see exactly when the brief will run.
Common schedules
| Schedule | Expression | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Every day at 8 AM | 0 8 * * * | Daily morning article |
| Weekdays at 9 AM | 0 9 * * 1-5 | Business days only |
| Every Monday at 7 AM | 0 7 * * 1 | Weekly roundup |
| Twice daily | 0 8,18 * * * | Morning and evening editions |
| Every 6 hours | 0 */6 * * * | Frequent updates throughout the day |
| First of month at 9 AM | 0 9 1 * * | Monthly recap |
Times are interpreted in the timezone you set on the brief. If you leave it at UTC and your audience is in Paris (UTC+1), 0 8 * * * fires at 9 AM local time. Set the timezone explicitly to avoid surprises.
Setting up a schedule
Open the brief
Navigate to Briefs in the sidebar and click the brief you want to schedule. On the brief detail page, open the Schedule tab.
Enable automation
Toggle Automated generation on. The schedule configuration fields appear.
Configure the schedule
- Expression -- Enter the cadence using the five-field format above. The UI shows a human-readable preview (e.g., "Every day at 8:00 AM").
- Timezone -- Defaults to UTC. Select your preferred timezone from the dropdown.
- Max articles per run -- Set between 1 and 5. This limits how many articles a single scheduled run produces. For most use cases, 1 is the right choice.
Save and activate
Click Save. If the brief is in Draft state, set it to Active for the schedule to run.
Monitoring execution history
Each brief keeps a record of its scheduled runs. On the brief detail page, the History tab shows:
- Timestamp -- When the run fired.
- Status -- Success or failure, with error details if something went wrong.
- Article link -- A direct link to the generated article for successful runs.
- Duration -- How long the generation took (typically ~75 seconds).
Pausing and resuming
You can pause a brief's automation without losing its schedule. Click Pause on the brief detail page -- the brief moves to the Paused state and no runs fire. Click Resume to reactivate it. Manual generation still works on paused briefs.
To temporarily stop automation -- for example, during a holiday -- pause briefs individually rather than deleting their schedules. Resuming restores the exact same configuration.
Scheduled runs generate on EarlyForge's managed AI key until you reach your monthly AI word budget (Free 5,000 · Starter 10,000 · Pro 25,000 · Scale 50,000 words/month). To keep automation running beyond that on a paid plan, connect your own AI key for unlimited generation.
What's next?
- Create a brief -- Walk through the full brief wizard
- Sources -- Configure source types for your briefs
- Style and tone -- Control article tone and structure