# Harrison Chase says cron jobs can power agent memory, proactivity, and reminders

> Original title: crons are a simple technology but can be used in a bunch of ways to unlock new capabilities in agent harnesses:

- Source: Harrison Chase
- Published: 2026-10-28T16:24:19.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/pzdwp2y348zv0bzyfmzyhe680
- Original: https://x.com/hwchase17/status/2115479787145929060

## Summary

LangChain founder Harrison Chase says cron jobs, a simple scheduling technology, can add capabilities to agent harnesses. He lists memory consolidation ("dreaming"), proactive agent behavior, and user reminders as examples.

## Post

crons are a simple technology but can be used in a bunch of ways to unlock new capabilities in agent harnesses:
- memory (dreaming)
- proactiveness
- user reminders

and more!

## Quoted post @ndrezn

> nearly every proactive agent you've seen is a cron job with a prompt
> 
> memory that "dreams" overnight, agents that ping you first. both are scheduled runs on a 50+ year old OS idea
> 
> how to build one with Managed Deep Agents ⬇️ https://x.com/i/article/2115474237418778624

https://x.com/ndrezn/status/2115477935482118345