Scheduling Jobs¶

GigQ doesn't include a built-in scheduler — it doesn't need one. The queue handles persistence and delivery; scheduling is just submitting jobs on a timer. Two patterns cover virtually every case.

gigq worker --db jobs.db

Pattern 1: System Cron + CLI¶

The simplest approach. Use your system's cron daemon to call gigq submit on a schedule.

Say you have a task function in a module:

# tasks.py
def generate_report(format="pdf"):
    """Generate the daily summary report."""
    # ... your logic here ...
    return {"status": "done", "format": format}

Add a crontab entry to submit a job every hour:

# Run 'crontab -e' to edit
0 * * * * gigq submit tasks.generate_report --name "Hourly report" --param "format=pdf" --db /path/to/jobs.db

That's it. Cron handles the schedule, gigq submit creates the job, and the worker picks it up.

Pattern 2: Python Loop¶

When cron isn't available — Windows machines, containers without cron, or cases where you want submission logic in Python — use a simple loop:

import time
from gigq import Job, JobQueue

queue = JobQueue("jobs.db")

while True:
    job = Job(
        name="Hourly report",
        function="tasks.generate_report",
        params={"format": "pdf"},
    )
    queue.submit(job)
    time.sleep(3600)  # wait one hour

This is just a submission loop — it puts jobs on the queue but doesn't run them. The worker processes jobs separately, as always.