Run prompts on a schedule with Routines

A routine is a prompt Bearly runs for you on a schedule — a weekday news brief, a Friday roundup of mentions, a month-end recap. Each routine gets its own chat. Every run lands there marked unread, and you can also have the result emailed or texted to you.

You can create and edit routines anywhere, but they run in the Bearly desktop app, on the one device you install them on, while the app is open.

Create a routine

1. Open Routines

   Select Routines in the sidebar, or type /routine in any chat. You can also ask in a conversation: when a chat is already doing the task, “do this every weekday at 8” turns it into a routine, with the same options as the editor.

2. Describe it

   Type what you want and when into the box — for example, “AI news brief, weekday mornings” — and select Draft routine. Bearly turns your description into a draft. New routine opens a blank editor instead.

3. Review the draft

   Check the Name, the Prompt, and the Schedule. Write the prompt as a complete instruction so the first run has everything it needs. Schedules can be daily, weekdays, weekends, chosen days of the week, or a day of the month, at an exact time in your timezone. The editor shows the next few run times so you can confirm it reads your intent correctly.

4. Select Create routine

   The routine gets its own chat, named after it. If you created it on desktop, it starts running there; if you created it on web or mobile, install it from the desktop app when you’re at that machine.

You can keep up to 10 active routines, and runs must be at least 30 minutes apart.

Give runs tools with plugins

In the editor, Plugins controls what each run can use beyond web search, X search, and the files in the routine’s chat:

• Connectors — let runs read your connected apps, like email or a calendar. Each connector has a Tools setting: All or Read-only. Connectors sign in per device, so if one isn’t connected on the device that runs the routine, the run says so instead of failing silently.
• Skills — give runs your installed skills. A skill with scripts also has an Allow scripts switch; turning it on lets that skill’s scripts run unattended on your machine. Leave it off unless you trust the skill to run without you watching.
• Deep Research — each run does full paid research and emails you the PDF report. It’s billed per run at the Standard or Ultra tier; the editor shows each tier’s current per-run price, since pricing changes over time. Do the math before you put research on a daily schedule.

Allow commands and local file access

On the desktop app, Local access → Allow unattended local tools lets a routine use Local Exec and selected skill scripts without waiting for approval. Bearly shows a detailed warning and does not turn the setting on until you select Allow unattended access. If you ask Bearly to enable Local access while setting up a routine in chat, an approval card with the same risks appears before the routine is saved; select Allow to continue or Deny to stop the save without enabling it.

The routine can change or delete data

With unattended local access on, the AI can run shell commands and skill scripts and can read, upload, change, overwrite, or permanently delete files available to your computer account. It acts without asking before each command. AI mistakes or malicious instructions hidden in websites, files, email, or connector data could expose secrets or destroy data.

Leave this off unless the routine needs local commands. Keep current backups, give the routine the smallest practical working folder, and test the saved routine with Run now before relying on its schedule. You can turn the setting off at any time; later runs will stop receiving Local Exec.

This setting does not override your computer’s permissions or your team’s Bearly policy. It never allows a scheduled run to see your screen or control your browser or computer.

Runs build on previous runs under Context is on by default for new routines. Each run sees the chat’s earlier runs — useful for “tell me what changed since yesterday” or “don’t recommend anything you’ve already suggested.” Turn it off when every run should start clean. Existing routines keep their saved setting.

Control when you hear about it

Every run lands in the routine’s chat either way. The Only when field sets the bar for actually notifying you — for example, “a competitor ships something new”. When a run doesn’t meet the bar, there’s no unread badge, email, or text; the result just sits quietly in the chat, and Recent runs notes why. So that silence never reads as a dead routine, it checks in anyway every 7th quiet run in a row — and when the bar can’t be checked, it delivers to be safe.

Two delivery options sit below it:

• Email me each result — sends each delivered result to your account email. Routines only email you, never other addresses.
• Text me each result — texts a short AI summary of each delivered result to your verified number. Turning it on the first time walks you through phone verification. Texts are capped at 3 a day, and a text leaves end-to-end encryption — the switch says so where you turn it on.

Where routines run

Routines run on one device: the Device row in the editor shows which. Install on this device claims a routine created elsewhere; Move to this device takes one over from another machine. A routine that isn’t installed anywhere doesn’t run.

The desktop app has to be open. If it was closed or asleep over a scheduled time, the routine catches up when the app is back: it runs once for the most recent missed slot, and older missed slots are recorded as skipped in Recent runs rather than run late in a burst.

Run now in the editor runs the last saved version immediately on the current device — useful to test a new prompt without waiting for the schedule.

When a routine fails

Recent runs in the editor shows each run’s outcome, including skips and why. If a routine fails twice in a row it pauses itself, and Bearly notifies you and sends an email so it never dies silently. Fix the cause — often a connector that needs reconnecting on that device — then select Resume. Individual runs are also stopped if they take longer than about 25 minutes.

Pausing a routine stops the schedule but keeps everything. Deleting one stops it everywhere; its chat and past runs stay in your history.

What scheduled runs can and can’t do

A scheduled run works unattended, so it’s deliberately more limited than you working in a chat. It can search the web and X, read and search the files in its chat (including PDFs and saved transcripts), write files, use the connectors and skills you selected, and run paid Deep Research if you enabled it. By default, it does not run general commands on your machine; skill scripts run only for skills where you turned on Allow scripts. Turning on Allow unattended local tools also gives the routine Local Exec and permits selected skill scripts without individual approval.

Scheduled runs never see your screen or control your browser or computer, even when unattended local tools are on.

For anything that needs your hands or eyes, open the routine’s chat and continue the conversation there. It’s a normal Bearly chat with everything you have anywhere else, and the routine’s full run history as context.

Managed-team administrators can turn Routines off from Teams → team name → Policies → policy name → Code & Automation → Disable Routines.