Find a quieter time for a new job. Cronstable compares upcoming runs over the next 24 hours and suggests a time with the fewest scheduled runs, using the same forecast as schedule load.

GET /schedule/suggest?period=hourly
GET /schedule/suggest?period=daily&tz=Europe/London

period=hourly picks a minute of the hour (a <m> * * * * schedule); period=daily picks a minute and hour (<m> <h> * * *). tz sets the timezone for the daily suggestion (default UTC).

{
  "period": "hourly",
  "minute": 29,
  "expression": "29 * * * *",
  "fires_in_window": 0,
  "busiest": { "minute": 0, "fires_in_window": 851 },
  "alternatives": [
    { "minute": 31, "expression": "31 * * * *", "fires_in_window": 0 },
    { "minute": 28, "expression": "28 * * * *", "fires_in_window": 0 }
  ],
  "based_on": { "jobs": 41, "start": "2026-07-18T16:20:00+00:00", "hours": 24 },
  "hash_hint": "H * * * *"
}

The choice is deterministic for a given forecast: fewest scheduled runs first, then the slot farthest around the clock from the busiest one, then the earliest slot. For an idle fleet, this rule selects :30.

busiest identifies the most crowded slot, alternatives gives two runners-up, and hash_hint suggests an H expression for automatic distribution.

The same analyzer backs the cron_suggest_slot Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool, so an agent asked to "add a cleanup job" can pick a schedule that does not add to a crowded slot.

The web dashboard's schedule load card has suggest an hourly slot and suggest a daily slot buttons. The suggested expression is a chip you click to copy. The terminal dashboard's schedule load overlay shows both suggestions inline, computed locally from the same shared analyzer.

A suggested slot gives you an explicit minute based on the current forecast; it does not rebalance later. An H schedule derives a stable slot from each job's name. Use a suggestion when the time must be explicit in the configuration, or H to assign slots automatically.