Claude Code is getting a feature many have been waiting for: Routines. These are automations you configure once that run on Anthropic’s web infrastructure — no open laptop required.
What are Routines?
A routine is a Claude Code automation with a fixed prompt, repository, and connectors. Once configured, it can be triggered in three ways:
On a schedule: Hourly, nightly, or weekly — Claude Code runs the prompt automatically.
Via API: Every routine gets its own endpoint with an auth token. Perfect for plugging into existing pipelines.
On GitHub events: A routine can react to repository events — for example, automatically spinning up a session for every new PR.
Typical use cases
Early users are deploying Routines for patterns like these:
- Backlog management: Triage new issues nightly, label them, assign owners, and post a summary to Slack
- Docs drift: Scan merged PRs weekly, flag docs that reference changed APIs, and open update PRs
- Deploy verification: Automatically check that everything’s working after each deploy
- Alert triage: Evaluate and prioritize incoming alerts
- Feedback resolution: Collect user feedback, cluster it, and prepare summaries
Limits per plan
Pro users can run up to 5 routines per day, Max users up to 15, and Team/Enterprise users up to 25.
My take
Routines fill a gap that always bugged me about Claude Code: the agent could only work while I was actively at my computer. Now I can configure a workflow in the evening and review the results in the morning. For recurring tasks like issue triage or docs updates, this is a massive productivity boost.
Routines are available as a research preview.
Sources: Claude Blog · 9to5Mac · Simon Willison