Cron Jobs in Node.js: The Practical Guide Nobody Gave Me

Cron Jobs in Node.js: The Practical Guide Nobody Gave Me I spent 3 days learning things about cron in Node.js that should have been documented somewhere. Here is everything I wish I had known. The Basics Everyone Shows You const cron = require('node-cron'); // Run every 5 minutes cron.schedule('*/5 * * * *', () => { console.log('Running every 5 minutes'); }); // Run daily at 9 AM cron.schedule('0 9 * * *', () => { console.log('Good morning!'); }); Simple enough. node-cron has 50k+ weekly downloads for a reason. But here is what the tutorials do NOT tell you. 1. Your Process Will Crash (And Your Cron Jobs Die) This is the #1 thing that bit me: // app.js const cron = require('node-cron'); cron.schedule('*/5 * * * *', async () => { // If THIS throws, the entire process dies const data = await fetchSomethingThatMightFail(); processData(data); // Can also throw }); When an unhandled exception occurs inside your cron