Schedule a Claude Code or Codex workflow on your Mac

Before you start

• The claude and/or codex command-line tool, installed and signed in (how).
• A repo on your Mac for the workflow to run in.
• Pairbar running at the scheduled times: workflows only run while it's open, so consider Open Pairbar at login.

Steps

1. Open New workflow
   Go to the Workflows tab and press New workflow (or type "New workflow" after ⌘K). On an empty tab, Ideas for you offers ready-made workflows for your most-used repo; clicking one opens the editor already filled in.
2. Describe what you want
   Write it in plain words, including when and any limits, for example "every weekday at 9, find failing tests and fix them, but ask me before changing code". Pick the folder, then press Enter.
3. Choose who plans it
   The Plan with chip picks Claude or Codex; it defaults to the one with more of its limit left. The planner only looks at the folder: Claude gets just Read, Glob and Grep, Codex its read-only sandbox. The card shows planning stages, elapsed time and recent activity. One-time planning helpers stay out of the ordinary chat list: Codex uses ephemeral requests, and Pairbar hides Claude helper transcripts. Chats from actual workflow steps remain available. After three successful plans with the chosen app it shows a measured approximate time range. Cancel returns to the previous stage with your request, files and choices kept. Change Plan with to retry with another AI. Cancelling a refinement keeps the existing draft and your change text. You can switch to another tab while it plans and return to the same request or completed draft. Unsaved state lasts while Pairbar stays open.
4. Review the plan
   The plan opens in the editor with a banner explaining why it's planned that way: the steps and what each waits for, the app, model, effort, agent and permissions per step, conditions, the schedule and a goal. Change anything by hand, or use Edit with AI on one step. Type or dictate a change, review the suggested text, and choose Apply. It changes only that step’s prompt and keeps its settings and the other steps.
5. Replan by typing
   To change the plan in words, type into the banner, for example "use Codex for the fix" or "run it on Mondays only". Back returns to your description.
6. Set the schedule and the limit threshold
   Choose Scheduled under Trigger, then check the interval or day and time (Every 15m–8h, daily, weekdays, or one weekday, at a time) and Skip under N%: a scheduled run is skipped when less than that share of the plan's tightest limit is left. The default is 20%.
7. Create it
   Nothing is saved or run until you press Create workflow (⌘↩ saves in the editor). A scheduled workflow waits for its next scheduled time rather than running immediately. Manual is the default for new workflows and runs only when explicitly started.
8. Try it with Run now
   On the workflow's page, Run now skips the limit check. Workflows with Startup questions collect required text or URL answers before any step starts. Each run shows as done, failed, skipped, waiting for you or stopped, with Open chat to jump to its chat; click a step to open its own chat, or hover it to preview what it is doing.

Write it yourself instead

Write it yourself (top right) skips the planner and opens the editor: a name, then each step as the same card as a new chat (Claude | Codex, what it should do, with 🎤 and 📎 for files, and the Folder, Agent (Claude only), Skill, Model and Permissions chips), then the Trigger (Manual or Scheduled) with Skip when the plan is low. The prompt runs without you, so make it self-contained. Add a step chains up to five steps; Create workflow stays at the bottom and says what's missing until it can be saved.

What the planner can and can't decide

• It uses only apps, models, efforts and agents you actually have; unknown ones become defaults, and a missing app becomes the other.
• Heavier work goes to the app with more limit left.
• Each step gets the least permission it needs, with Ask me first on later steps that edit files. See workflow permission levels.
• A step can only wait for earlier steps, and there are at most five.

When runs happen

Where workflows are stored

As readable JSON in ~/.config/pairbar/: workflows.json, workflow-runs.json (the last 300 runs), heartbeats.json (check-ins), workflow-proposals.json and workflow-versions.json. The folder and files are private to your account. A file that doesn't read back is renamed to <name>.corrupt-<date> rather than overwritten.

Troubleshooting

A scheduled run shows as skipped

The plan's limit was under the Skip under N% threshold. Lower the threshold, or use Run now, which skips the limit check.

A step fails with a permission problem

Headless runs can't ask for approval. Use Can run commands for steps that run tests or gh, and Can edit files for steps that change code.

The workflow didn't run overnight

Pairbar must be running. Turn on Open Pairbar at login in Settings → General; a run missed while the Mac slept happens once on wake.