A useful routine answers three questions: what should the bot check, when should it check, and what deserves your attention? Canopy turns those instructions into recurring work attached to your bot.
Start with a decision you repeat
Choose a responsibility with a clear source and a useful outcome. A morning issue review, a weekly project summary or a check for unresolved review requests gives the bot a bounded question. Name the account and project when several are available.
Then describe when the bot should message you. You might want a summary every Monday, or only a note when something needs a decision. These are natural-language instructions for the bot, so keep the notification rule concrete.
Keep scheduled work in the same conversation
A routine belongs to a bot and uses its current instructions, granted accounts and approval policy. The routine can gather context, start coding work or ask for a decision. It does not create a separate set of account permissions.
Background narration stays out of the conversation unless the bot sends a message. Real questions, approvals and delegated work remain visible. You can pause or delete routines from the bot's panel when a responsibility ends or its instructions need revision.
Choose timing with care
Recurring routines use a schedule and a time zone. Canopy supports up to 20 routines per bot, including paused routines, with at least 15 minutes between occurrences. Check the saved time zone when the timing matters across travel or seasonal clock changes.
Messages and routines share the bot's queue. An unanswered approval can hold later work, so avoid combining many unrelated responsibilities in one bot. After downtime, missed occurrences combine into one execution rather than flooding the conversation with every missed check.
Keep the execution computer available
The bot's home gateway and assigned worker must be available for execution. A routine on a sleeping laptop does not become an always-on cloud service. For checks while you travel, choose a computer or server you intend to keep running.
A bot routine differs from a coding schedule. Use a routine for a recurring responsibility that may involve conversation and connected accounts. Use a Thread schedule when the intended action is a message to a coding agent at a chosen time.