cron
0 16 * * 5GitHub Actions — Weekly Friday at 4 PM UTC
“At 16:00, on Friday”
Triggers a GitHub Actions workflow every Friday at 4:00 PM UTC — ideal for end-of-week release workflows, weekly summary reports, and Friday afternoon automated GitHub Actions pipelines.
Weekly1 per week runs/day
Want to customize this schedule or validate your own cron expression?
Try it live →Field Breakdown
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| minute | 0 | 0 |
| hour | 16 | 16 |
| day | * | every day of month |
| month | * | every month |
| weekday | 5 | Friday |
0
minute
16
hour
*
day
*
month
5
weekday
Common Use Cases
- ✓Friday release workflow
- ✓End-of-week summary
- ✓Weekly GitHub Actions pipeline
Code Examples
Bash / crontab
# Run your script on schedule: 0 16 * * 5 0 16 * * 5 /path/to/your/script.sh
Node.js (node-cron)
import cron from 'node-cron';
cron.schedule('0 16 * * 5', () => {
console.log('Running scheduled task');
});Python (APScheduler)
from apscheduler.schedulers.blocking import BlockingScheduler
scheduler = BlockingScheduler()
@scheduler.scheduled_job('cron', minute='0', hour='16', day_of_week='5')
def my_job():
print('Running scheduled task')
scheduler.start()GitHub Actions Workflow
Generate a ready-to-use .github/workflows/schedule.yml file. Customize the name and download directly.
GitHub Actions
# .github/workflows/schedule.yml
name: GitHub Actions — Weekly Friday at 4 PM UTC
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 16 * * 5'
workflow_dispatch: # allow manual trigger
jobs:
run:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Checkout code
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Run scheduled task
run: |
echo "Running on schedule: 0 16 * * 5"
# Add your commands here
Save as .github/workflows/schedule.yml in your repository root
Cron Syntax Quick Reference
| Field | Allowed Values | Special Chars |
|---|---|---|
| minute | 0–59 | * , - / |
| hour | 0–23 | * , - / |
| day of month | 1–31 | * , - / |
| month | 1–12 or JAN–DEC | * , - / |
| day of week | 0–7 or SUN–SAT | * , - / |
Special characters: *= any value ,= list -= range / = step
Related Patterns — Weekly
Need to build your own cron expression from scratch?
Open the Cron Expression Builder →