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Claude Code Complete Guide

Complete Guide to Claude Code Scheduled Execution - Automate with GitHub Actions Scheduled Workflows

Target Audience

  • Intermediate developers who want to run Claude Code on a schedule

Key Points

  1. Basic configuration of GitHub Actions scheduled workflows
  2. Implementation of automation scripts using Claude Code API
  3. Working workflow file code you can use immediately

The Core Problem

When trying to schedule Claude Code execution with cron, authentication management and error handling become complex, making maintenance difficult. With GitHub Actions scheduled workflows, secret management, log management, and error notifications are integrated, enabling safe automation with modern CI/CD pipelines.

Solution

The simplest approach is to use Anthropic's official anthropics/claude-code-action.

Create .github/workflows/claude-scheduled.yml:

name: Claude Code Scheduled
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 9 * * 1-5'  # Weekdays at 9 AM (UTC)
  workflow_dispatch:  # For manual execution

jobs:
  claude-automation:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      pull-requests: write
      issues: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1
        with:
          prompt: "Analyze the repository and summarize improvements in an Issue"
          anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}

Method B: Direct Python API Call

For finer-grained control, use the Anthropic Python SDK.

Create scripts/claude_automation.py:

import os
import anthropic

client = anthropic.Anthropic(api_key=os.getenv('ANTHROPIC_API_KEY'))

def run_daily_analysis():
    response = client.messages.create(
        model="claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929",
        max_tokens=1000,
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Please analyze today's tasks"}]
    )
    return response.content

if __name__ == "__main__":
    result = run_daily_analysis()
    print(result)

Workflow file:

name: Claude Code Scheduled
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 9 * * 1-5'
  workflow_dispatch:  # For manual execution
jobs:
  claude-automation:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
        with:
          python-version: '3.12'
      - run: pip install anthropic
      - name: Run Claude automation
        env:
          ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
        run: python scripts/claude_automation.py

Step 3: Configure Secrets and Test Execution

Register ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in GitHub repository Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions, then use workflow_dispatch to manually trigger and verify.

Common Issues and Solutions

SymptomCauseSolution
API authentication errorSecret configuration issueCheck API key in Settings > Secrets > Actions
Not executingCron timezone issueConfigure in UTC time (JST -9 hours)
Logs not visibleprint statements not outputtingUse print(result, flush=True)
Advanced Configuration (For Advanced Users - Click to Expand) ## Advanced Schedule Configuration 
on:
  schedule:
    # Generate report every Monday at 9 AM
    - cron: '0 0 * * 1'
    # Daily check at noon
    - cron: '0 3 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      task_type:
        description: 'Task type to run'
        required: true
        default: 'analysis'
        type: choice
        options:
        - analysis
        - report
        - cleanup
## Error Notification Configuration 
- name: Notify on failure
  if: failure()
  uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v2
  with:
    webhook: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
    webhook-type: incoming-webhook
    payload: |
      {"text": "Claude Code scheduled job failed: ${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}"}

Next Steps