#Validate schedules in CI

Add tessl schedule validate to your CI workflow to catch errors in the schedules block of tessl.json before a change is merged. This is a manual setup: add the step to your own CI configuration.

#What it checks

The command reads tessl.json and validates the file. It checks:

• The shape of the schedules block and each schedule entry.
• That every action a schedule names, directly or with use, is declared in the actions block.
• The actions block itself: each declaration's fields and values, and its name. A problem there is reported against the action, as in actions.pr-report.
• Schedule field names, including required fields, the rule that an entry's action fields go inside action, and the rule that each entry uses either cron or schedule, but not both.
• Field types, including structured schedule values and string-only input values.
• Cron syntax and supported human-readable or structured schedule forms.
• The minimum interval between runs, which is five minutes.
• That each repo-local file: skill exists in the working tree.

The command reports every problem it finds and exits with a non-zero status when the file is invalid. CI uses that status to fail the check.

#What it does not check

Without a Tessl login, as in the workflow below, this command validates the file only. It does not check server-side resources or workspace limits, including:

• Whether the named environment exists or contains the required secrets.
• Whether the referenced skill or plugin is installed and available to the workspace.
• Whether the workspace has capacity for another active schedule.

Tessl checks those when the file syncs or when a run starts. Signed in, with a name that identifies your project, the command runs them too. See Validate before you push.

#GitHub Actions

The following workflow installs the Tessl CLI and runs the validator on pull requests that change tessl.json:

name: Validate Tessl schedules

on:
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - tessl.json
      - .github/workflows/validate-tessl-schedules.yml

jobs:
  validate-schedules:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Install Tessl CLI
        uses: tesslio/setup-tessl@v2
      - name: Validate Tessl schedules
        run: tessl schedule validate

The validation step does not need a Tessl token because it checks the local file. The CLI's non-zero exit status fails the GitHub Actions job when a schedule is invalid.

#File checks and server checks

This check catches file-level issues before merge, such as a misspelled field, an invalid cron expression, or a schedule that runs too often. After a valid file is merged and synced, Tessl performs server-side checks. For example, a schedule whose environment doesn't exist still syncs, but its runs don't start until you create the environment.

For the full schedule format, see Schedules.