Scheduled tasks

A scheduled task is something you ask BrowseWiz to do on a schedule, such as every day at a set time. You see and manage your scheduled tasks in the scheduled tasks drawer, which lists your monitors too. The free plan allows 1 scheduled task and a paid plan allows up to 10. Monitors have their own limit and don't count toward it.

Create a task

Ask in the chat for something to be done on a schedule, such as "Every weekday at 9 AM, add new job posts from … to my sheet". BrowseWiz answers with a plan card. It shows the steps, the output, the schedule with its time zone, and the tools the task can use ("Tools"). The task gets the tools that are on in that chat.

The card also lists, after "This task may:", every change the task's runs may make, such as adding rows to a named sheet or clicking on pages. A task that changes nothing shows "This task only reads. It can't change anything on pages or in your tools." instead. Runs can make only the changes on this list: any other change is refused, the run's chat shows "Refused name: not declared in the task's plan.", and the run goes on without it. A task saved before tasks had this list runs read-only, and its runs start with the note "This task was created before tasks declared their interactions, so it runs read-only. Delete it and schedule it again to allow changes."

• Approve & run saves the task. It does not run it now: the first run is at the next scheduled time.
• Reject saves nothing. Tell BrowseWiz what to change, and it proposes a new plan.

If the plan writes to a named Google Sheet, the card says for each sheet whether it is a new spreadsheet or an existing one. A new task writes to an existing sheet only if you asked for that sheet: when you already have a spreadsheet with the plan's sheet name, such as one a deleted task left behind, BrowseWiz first asks whether to add to it or start a new one. Approving the plan signs you in to Google first if needed. BrowseWiz then opens the existing sheet you chose, or creates the new one with its header row, and adds the header row to an existing sheet whose header row is empty. If that fails, for example because you decline Google sign-in, no task is saved and BrowseWiz tells you why.

Once you approve it, the task appears in the scheduled tasks drawer, and the plan card shows an "Open scheduled tasks" link and a "Run now" link that runs the task once right away (see Run a task now).

If the task can't be saved (for example, you decline Google sign-in for its sheet, or you reached your plan's limit), the card shows "Not saved" with the reason.

Tasks run in background tabs, which needs the tab access permission. If BrowseWiz does not have it yet, Chrome asks for it when you click "Approve & run" or "Approve update". The task is saved whether you grant or decline, but its runs fail with "tab access required" until you grant it.

BrowseWiz plans tasks with the browser agent, so the browser agent must be on (it is by default) and the chat model must support tools. If you already have as many tasks as your plan allows, BrowseWiz asks you to delete one in the drawer first.

The first time in a chat that BrowseWiz's reply uses the browser agent, writes to a Google Sheet and finishes with an answer, an "Update this sheet daily" button appears above the chat input. It goes away when you send another message. Click it to ask BrowseWiz to turn that work into a daily task that updates the same sheet, or click its × if you don't want this suggestion: it then never comes back.

Schedules

You can schedule a task to run:

• every day at a set time;
• on set days of the week at a set time, such as weekdays at 5:30 PM;
• on set days of the month, or only in set months, such as on the 1st at 9:00 AM.

A task runs at one set time of day, so it runs at most once a day on every plan. Schedules such as every hour, every 2 hours, twice a day, or once on a later date are not supported. Times are in your browser's time zone unless you ask for another one.

If you ask for an hourly schedule, BrowseWiz tells you that a task runs at most once a day and offers a daily time instead. A task saved earlier with an hourly schedule keeps it, but runs at most once a day.

Edit a task

With the browser agent on and a chat model that supports tools, ask in any chat to change a task, such as "Move my news task to 7:00" or "Add Reuters to my morning news task". BrowseWiz shows the whole revised plan on a card that says "Updates scheduled task" with the task's name. If the change adds or removes tools, the card lists them after "This update adds" or "This update removes". Click "Approve update" to save it, or "Reject" to keep the task as it is. An approved update gives the task the tools that are on in the chat where you approve it, and sets up a named Google Sheet as for a new task, except that it uses the one existing sheet with that name without asking: if that fails, the task isn't changed.

The task keeps its runs in History and its previous result. It also keeps whether each run sees the previous result, unless you ask to change that, such as "Stop comparing with the last run" (see Use previous result). If you changed the schedule or time zone, the next run moves to match. A run already in progress finishes with the old plan.

You can also edit tasks over your plan's limit. To pause or delete a task, use the drawer: you cannot do that from chat.

Open the drawer

In the top menu, click the clock button (tooltip: "Scheduled tasks"). Press Esc or click outside the drawer to close it.

The drawer's header reads "Scheduled tasks", with two counts under it, separated by a middle dot: "Tasks" with how many scheduled tasks you have out of the number your plan allows (1 on the free plan, 10 on a paid plan), and "Monitors" with how many monitors you have out of your plan's monitor limit (1 on the free plan, 30 on a paid plan), for example "Tasks 2/10 · Monitors 5/30". The two limits are separate: monitors don't count toward the task limit.

The drawer lists your scheduled tasks and your monitors in one list. A task's row shows a clock icon before its schedule; a monitor's row shows an eye icon ("Monitor") and the page's host in place of a schedule, the same icons History uses. It has no plan button and no "Edit in chat". See The monitor's row for what a monitor's row shows and does.

With no tasks and no monitors, the list reads "No scheduled tasks or monitors yet."

At the bottom of the drawer are two buttons, New task and New monitor. They stay in place while the list scrolls above them. Each closes the drawer, starts a new chat (the current one is kept in History) and types a request into the chat input for you to finish and send. Nothing is sent until you do.

• New task types "Every day at 9:00, ". Add what to do, and BrowseWiz answers with a plan card (see Create a task).
• New monitor types "Watch " followed by your active tab's URL and " and notify me when ", or "Watch the page at " if the active tab isn't a web page. Add what to watch for, and BrowseWiz sets up a monitor (see Set up a monitor).

While the browser agent is off, both buttons are disabled, with the tooltips "Turn on the browser agent to add tasks in chat" and "Turn on the browser agent to add monitors in chat". When you have as many tasks as your plan allows, New task is disabled with the tooltip "You can have up to 1 scheduled task. Delete it to add another." on the free plan, or "You can have up to 10 scheduled tasks. Delete one to add another." on a paid plan. When you have as many monitors as your plan allows, New monitor is disabled with the tooltip "You can have up to 1 monitor. Delete it to add another." on the free plan, or "You can have up to 30 monitors. Delete one to add another." on a paid plan.

Each task row shows:

• the task name, on up to two lines. A longer name ends in "…", and hovering it shows the whole name;
• a clock icon and the schedule in words, such as "Every day at …" or "Weekdays at …";
• a run line: "Next run" with the time in the task's time zone if the task has not run yet, otherwise "Last run" with how long ago it ran and its status. A failed last run is shown in the error color, and a last run that needs attention reads "needs attention" in amber. A paused task shows "Paused" instead, and a task that another browser runs shows where it runs (see Scheduled tasks on more than one browser);
• a "Grant tab access" button, if the last run failed because tab access is missing. Click it to open Chrome's permission prompt;
• four buttons at the row's top right, shown when you hover over the row or reach them with the Tab key: a document button ("Show plan"), a play button ("Run task now"), a pause button ("Pause task") and a ⋮ button ("More actions"). All four stay shown while the plan is open. ⋮ opens a small menu with Notify via email (see Email alerts) and Delete task (see Delete a task). Esc or a click outside the menu closes it.

The list updates on its own when a task is created, changed or deleted, so you do not need to reopen the drawer.

If you have more tasks than your plan allows, for example after a downgrade, they stay listed and keep running on schedule. You can't add a new task until you are under the limit.

Open a task's latest run

Click a task row. The drawer closes and the chat of the task's most recent run opens from History. If the task has not run yet, you see a notice: "No runs yet. Next run …", or "No runs yet. The task is paused." for a paused task.

View a task's plan

Click the document button on a task's row ("Show plan"). The task's plan opens under its row: what it does, its steps, its output, its schedule with the time zone, "Tools:" with the tools its runs can use, and "Each run sees the previous run's result" if the task uses its previous result. Click the button again ("Hide plan") to close it. This does not open the task or start a run.

To change the plan, click Edit in chat under it. The drawer closes and a new chat starts with "Change the scheduled task "name": " typed in the chat input: add what to change and send it (see Edit a task). While the browser agent is off, the button is disabled, with the tooltip "Turn on the browser agent to edit tasks in chat".

Use previous result

A task can use its previous result: each run of the task is then given the previous run's final answer. If you ask for a task that reports only what is new, BrowseWiz sets this when it creates the task, and the plan card says "Each run sees the previous run's result". The task's plan in the drawer says the same.

To turn it on or off, ask in chat, such as "Stop comparing my news task with the last run" (see Edit a task). The update card shows the new setting before you approve it. A failed run, or one that needs attention, does not replace the previous result.

Run a task now

Click the play button on a task's row ("Run task now") to start one run right away. It runs like a scheduled run: it adds an item to History, alerts you when it finishes or fails, and uses the previous result if the task uses it. It does not change the task's next scheduled run, and clicking it does not open the task. Paused tasks and tasks over your plan's limit can be run this way too.

The button is disabled:

• while any task run is in progress (tooltip: "A run is in progress");
• while the side panel is generating a reply (tooltip: "Waiting for the current reply to finish").

The plan card of a task you just approved has a "Run now" link next to "Open scheduled tasks". It starts the same run without leaving the chat, and is disabled in the same cases. While that task is running, the link reads "Running now".

When you are signed out, the drawer is empty, so there is nothing to run: see Sign out.

Pause and resume a task

Click the pause button on a task's row ("Pause task"). A paused task gets no scheduled runs, and its run line shows "Paused". Click the circled play button ("Resume task") to start it again. It next runs at its next scheduled time: times missed while it was paused are not run.

• "Run task now" still works on a paused task, and the task stays paused.
• A paused task still counts toward your plan's limit. To free a slot, delete it.
• A run already in progress when you pause the task finishes as usual.

Delete a task

Hover over a task row, click ⋮ ("More actions"), and choose Delete task. ⋮ is also reachable with the Tab key. Choosing Delete task does not delete the task yet. The row is replaced by a confirmation that asks whether to delete the task by name and says "Future runs stop. Past runs stay in History.", with two buttons:

• Cancel (or press Esc) brings the task row back.
• Delete removes the task.

Only one confirmation is open at a time. A run that is already in progress when you delete the task finishes, and its result stays in History.

Scheduled tasks on more than one browser

While "Back up everything except chats" is on in Settings (it is by default), your scheduled tasks are backed up to BrowseWiz cloud storage, with their plan, schedule, last result and the name of the browser that runs them. When you sign in on another browser, your tasks appear in its drawer, paused there.

Each task runs in one browser at a time, so you don't pay for the same run twice:

• A task that another browser runs shows "Runs in" with that browser's name, such as "Chrome on Windows", and when it was last seen.
• A task whose browser hasn't been seen for 48 hours shows "Not running · last seen in" with that browser's name, for example after you signed out there or stopped using it.
• To run a task in this browser instead, click its "Resume task" button. If the other browser was seen in the last 48 hours, BrowseWiz asks first, under the row: click "Run here" to move the task, or "Cancel" to leave it. The other browser stops the task the next time it syncs; until then, the task may run in both.
• Moving a task needs a connection to BrowseWiz. If it fails, the row says "Couldn't move this task here. Check your connection and try again." and nothing changes.
• Pausing a task, and resuming one that no other browser runs, also work offline.
• Before each scheduled run, BrowseWiz checks where the task runs. If it moved to another browser, or was deleted there, it doesn't run here.
• "Run task now" works in any browser and doesn't move the task.
• An edit approved on any browser applies before the task's next run, wherever it runs. Deleting a task in one browser removes it from every browser.

Run results show up in History on your other browsers only while chat history backup is on. Custom tools set up only in another browser are skipped in this one (see Tools in runs).

Sign out

Signing out sets your scheduled tasks aside in this browser: the drawer is empty, no task runs and no failed run is recorded. When you sign in again with the same account on this browser, the tasks come back as they were, paused or not, and run on their schedule again. Another account that signs in on this browser doesn't see them.

Tools in runs

A run uses the tools the task was given when you approved it, except:

• MCP tools, which never run in scheduled tasks;
• custom tools that were deleted, turned off, or set up only in another browser.

The run's chat then starts with a note naming the skipped tools: "Tools no longer available and skipped: …".

A run is offered only the changes its plan lists after "This task may:" (see Create a task).

When tasks run

• Tasks run only while Chrome is running. If Chrome was closed at a task's time, the task runs once soon after you open Chrome again, even if it missed several times.
• On Windows and Linux, Chrome quits when you close its last window. To keep tasks running after you close Chrome's windows, turn on Keep running after I close Chrome.
• If no Chrome window is open when a task is due, for example on a Mac, where Chrome keeps running without windows, the run opens a minimized Chrome window, works there and closes it when the run ends. If you open a tab of your own in that window, the window stays open.
• Tasks run one at a time. While the side panel is generating a reply, due tasks wait until it finishes.
• A run opens the pages it needs in background tabs in the BrowseWiz Tabs group and closes them when it ends.
• A run that takes longer than 20 minutes is stopped and fails with "timed out".
• Runs always use BrowseWiz's own model, whatever model you chose in the chat, and never your own API keys. They use your BrowseWiz credits (see What uses credits). A run that finds you not signed in to BrowseWiz fails with "sign-in required".
• Runs don't ask you to approve the browser agent's actions. See When no approval is asked.
• A run appears in History only when it ends. In History, a finished run keeps only its final answer. A failed run keeps the whole conversation, so you can see what went wrong.
• When a run ends with a final answer, BrowseWiz checks how much of the task it actually did, going by what its tools returned (pages the browser agent read or couldn't open, rows written to Google Sheets) rather than by what the answer says. The check is one request to BrowseWiz's safety-check model, the same one that checks the browser agent's actions, whatever model the task uses, and it uses your credits like the run itself.
  • If the run did more than 80% of it, it's "Finished".
  • If it did 40–80% of it, it "Needs attention": History keeps its final answer, followed by the note "Needs attention: about 40–80% done." and, when the browser agent got stuck on a site, where it stopped, such as "Stopped on portal.example.com." The task keeps its previous result.
  • If it did under 40% of it, it fails, and its chat ends with "The run didn't finish the task: under 40% done." and, when there is one, where the browser agent stopped.
  • If the check itself can't be done, the run is "Finished" as before.
• Each run also keeps a run log in this browser: the whole conversation and every step the browser agent took, with what each click reported and what the safety check decided. Hover over the run in History and click its copy icon ("Copy run log") to copy the log as text, for example to send it with a bug report. It doesn't open the run. BrowseWiz keeps the logs of a task's last 5 runs, never sends them anywhere, and removes them when you delete the task. Long page text is cut short in the log, and it holds no images.
• A run that ends without a final answer fails with "no final answer", and its chat ends with "The run ended without a final answer."
• A run cut off before it finished, for example because Chrome quit during the run, fails with "interrupted", and its chat ends with "The run was interrupted before it finished."

Keep running after I close Chrome

On Windows and Linux, the drawer has a "Keep running after I close Chrome" switch under "Notify me when a task finishes". Turning it on asks Chrome for permission to run in the background. Once you allow it, Chrome stays in the system tray after you close its windows, so scheduled tasks and monitors keep running. If you don't allow it, the switch stays off.

Turn the switch off to let Chrome quit with its last window again. The switch also follows the permission if you change it on the extension's details page.

The switch uses Chrome's own "Continue running background apps" setting (in Chrome's settings, under System). If that setting is off, or your organization turns it off, Chrome still quits when you close its last window. Nothing runs while your computer is off or asleep. The switch isn't shown on Mac, where Chrome keeps running after you close its windows anyway.

Run alerts

When a scheduled task run finishes, needs attention or fails, BrowseWiz alerts you, even when the side panel is closed. The alert names the task and shows "Finished" with how long the run took, "Needs attention · about 40–80% done", or "Failed" with the reason: "sign-in required", "Google sign-in required", "tab access required", "timed out", "interrupted", "no final answer", "something went wrong", or "under 40% done" when the run didn't do the task. When the browser agent got stuck on a site, a run that needs attention or did under 40% of the task also names that site, for example "Needs attention · about 40–80% done · stopped on portal.example.com". Clicking the alert opens the side panel on that run's chat.

The "Notify me when a task finishes" switch at the top of the drawer turns these alerts on or off. It is on by default.

BrowseWiz uses one of three alerts, depending on what you are doing:

1. In the side panel. If your browser window is focused and the side panel is open, a notice appears in the panel with an "Open" button.
2. On the page. If your browser window is focused but the side panel is closed, a small pill appears in the top-right corner of the page. Click it, or press Enter on it, to open the run. It closes by itself, or with its close button or Esc.
3. System notification. If no browser window is focused, the window is minimized, or the page is one where BrowseWiz cannot show a pill, you get a system notification titled "Task finished: ", "Task needs attention: " or "Task failed: " followed by the task name.

When the alert is a page pill or a system notification, the toolbar icon also gets a badge: a green badge for a finished run, an amber "!" for a run that needs attention, or a red "!" for a failed run. The badge clears when you open the side panel.

Email alerts

To also get an email, click ⋮ ("More actions") on the task's row and turn on Notify via email. It's off for every task until you turn it on, and you turn it on for each task or monitor on its own. It's saved right away, and it follows the task to your other browsers.

With it on, BrowseWiz emails your account's email address each time a run of that task ends:

• a finished run's email has the task name, "Finished" with how long the run took, the run's answer, and links to the Google Sheets the run changed (up to 10);
• a run that needs attention gets the same email, with "Needs attention · about 40–80% done" and where the browser agent stopped, if it got stuck, in place of "Finished";
• a failed run's email has the task name and "Failed" with the reason.

Every email has a link that opens the run in BrowseWiz. Open it in Chrome on the computer that ran the task, then click Open BrowseWiz on the page: BrowseWiz opens in the side panel with that run. On another computer, BrowseWiz opens the run only if it's in that computer's History, for example with Backup sync chat history on; otherwise it says the run is no longer in your history. Without BrowseWiz, the link takes you to its Chrome Web Store page.

The browser that runs the task sends the email. The "Notify me when a task finishes" switch doesn't affect emails, and "Notify via email" doesn't affect the alerts in Chrome. You need to be signed in: while you're signed out, "Notify via email" is disabled and no email is sent. To stop the emails, turn it off again in the same menu. If an email doesn't arrive, check your spam folder.

Test the notifications

While the "Notify me when a task finishes" switch is on, a "Send test notification" button appears under it. It shows a system notification titled "BrowseWiz test notification". Clicking that notification only dismisses it.

If you do not see it, the drawer shows: "Didn't see it? Allow notifications for Google Chrome and turn off Do Not Disturb in your system settings." On Windows and macOS, "system settings" is a link that opens your system's notification settings.

If the run was deleted from History before you click an alert, the side panel opens and shows "This task run is no longer in your history."