How to Schedule Python Scripts with Cron: A Beginner's Complete Guide

The best automation script is one that runs itself.

Cron is the Unix scheduler built into every macOS and Linux machine. No SaaS, no cloud subscriptions, no third-party scheduler — just a text file that tells your system when to run your code.

Here's everything you need to use it correctly.

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The crontab syntax

┌─ minute ( 0 - 59 ) │ ┌─ hour ( 0 - 23 ) │ │ ┌─ day ( 1 - 31 ) │ │ │ ┌─ month ( 1 - 12 ) │ │ │ │ ┌─ weekday ( 0 = Sun , 1 = Mon ...…