Submit a tool
Fixes / AI Agents

Your agent's scheduled jobs stop when your computer sleeps. Here's the fix

Scheduled agent jobs depend on a PC staying awake. Short answer: 5 steps. 1) Confirm where the agent actually runs; 2) Quick fix: stop the machine from sleeping; 3) Proper fix: move it to an always-on server; 4) Add a heartbeat; 5) Keep secrets out of the chat.

Last updated:

The problem: Scheduled agent jobs depend on a PC staying awake.
Asked on X: post 1

How do I fix this?

  1. Confirm where the agent actually runs

    If the agent process runs on your laptop or desktop, it pauses when the machine sleeps, reboots or loses Wi-Fi. Cloud-hosted agents keep running.

  2. Quick fix: stop the machine from sleeping

    On a desktop you leave on, disable sleep while plugged in (macOS: System Settings > Energy/Battery; Windows: Settings > Power). Fine for testing, fragile for anything important.

  3. Proper fix: move it to an always-on server

    Put a self-hosted agent on a small VPS, or move the scheduled parts to a job runner (Trigger.dev, Modal cron, n8n schedules) that calls your model.

  4. Add a heartbeat

    Have the agent send you a short message after each scheduled run. If the message doesn't arrive, you know it stopped instead of finding out days later.

  5. Keep secrets out of the chat

    When you move to a server, store API keys as environment variables or in the platform's secret manager, never in prompts or code.

Which tools can do this for me?

Hermes Agent

Nous Research's self-hosted agent; you run it on your own machine or server.

OpenClaw

Self-hosted personal agent; needs a machine that stays on.

Hetzner Cloud

Low-cost VPS to host a self-hosted agent that never sleeps.

Trigger.dev

Run scheduled and long-running background jobs (good for agent loops) without managing servers.

Sponsor slot

Open: 1 spot per week

One labeled sponsor for this topic each week; this week's spot is open. See open weeks →

All tools for “Run an AI agent 24/7” →