Introducing Routines in Claude Code
Tools
What It Does: Automating with Claude Code Routines
Today, Claude Code is thrilled to announce the research preview of Routines, a powerful new capability designed to automate your software development workflows directly within Claude Code's web infrastructure. Routines are essentially configurable Claude Code automations that combine a specific prompt, a designated repository, and various Claude Connectors to perform tasks.
What makes Routines stand out is their flexibility in execution. You can set them to run on a schedule—hourly, nightly, or weekly—or trigger them via an API call, or in response to specific events. This means your development automations run independently in the cloud, without needing your local machine to be open, taking the burden of managing cron jobs and infrastructure off your plate.
Why It Matters: Streamlining Your Development Workflow
Routines are set to revolutionize how teams manage repetitive and time-consuming development tasks. They offer three primary types of triggers, each opening up new possibilities for efficiency:
Scheduled Routines
These routines allow you to define a cadence for regular tasks. Imagine having Claude Code automatically pull the top bug from your issue tracker (like Linear) every night, attempt a fix, and even open a draft pull request for review. Or, set a weekly routine to scan merged PRs, detect documentation drift related to changed APIs, and automatically open update PRs. These scheduled automations are a direct evolution of tasks previously managed with /schedule in the CLI, offering a robust and reliable cloud-based solution. For more details on scheduling options, you can compare scheduling options in the documentation.
API Routines
Each API routine comes with its own unique endpoint and authentication token, enabling seamless integration with your existing tooling. You can wire Claude Code into your alerting systems (like Datadog), deploy hooks, or internal dashboards. For example, an API routine could read an alert payload, identify the owning service, and post a triage summary to your on-call channel with a proposed first step—all automatically. This empowers Claude Code to act as an intelligent agent within your operational workflows.
Webhook Routines
Starting with GitHub, webhook routines automatically kick off in response to repository events. When a PR matches your defined filters, Claude Code creates a new session and runs your routine. It continues to feed updates from that PR to the session, allowing it to address follow-ups such as comments or CI failures. This is particularly useful for automated code reviews, ensuring specific modules are flagged for attention, or even porting changes across parallel SDKs in different languages.
These capabilities translate into tangible benefits like automated backlog management, proactive documentation drift detection, reliable deploy verification, rapid alert triage, and efficient feedback resolution, ultimately accelerating your development cycle. For a comprehensive overview of Claude Code's capabilities, check out the Claude Code Overview.
How to Get Started: Availability and Usage
Routines are available today in research preview for Claude Code users on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, provided Claude Code on the web is enabled. To create your first routine, simply head over to claude.ai/code or type /schedule in the CLI if you're already familiar with it.
It's important to note that routines draw down your subscription usage limits in the same way as interactive sessions. Additionally, there are daily limits for routines: Pro users can run up to 5 routines per day, Max users up to 15, and Team and Enterprise users up to 25 routines per day. Extra routines beyond these limits are available with additional usage.
For more detailed information on configuring and managing your Routines, dive into the official Routines Documentation.
Read more: http://code.claude.com/docs/en/routines Explore how Routines can streamline your development workflow today.