Running a routine

List, enable, run, log, and inspect cost for routines. Every command with real captured output.

The 30-second tour

Every routine command starts with vinos-routine. Its help text is the source of truth:

$ vinos-routine --help
vinos-routine — scheduled autonomous agents

Usage:
  vinos-routine list [--scope=project|user]
                                        List routines with enabled + schedule status
  vinos-routine run <name>              Run a routine now (ad-hoc)
  vinos-routine enable <name>           Enable systemd user timer
  vinos-routine disable <name>          Disable systemd user timer
  vinos-routine logs <name> [--tail]    Show routine execution logs
  vinos-routine cost                    Recent runs + token usage (last 20)
  vinos-routine edit <name>             Open TOML in $EDITOR (scaffolds if new)
  vinos-routine load <path> [--dry-run --scope=project|user --force]
                                        Install routines from .vinos/routines.yaml
  vinos-routine unload <path> [--scope=project|user]
                                        Remove routines this YAML installed
  vinos-routine help                    This message

Routines:
  ~/.vinos/routines/*.toml            (user, hand-authored)
  ~/.vinos/routines/&lt;project&gt;/*.toml  (project-scoped, from `load`)
  /etc/vinos/routines/*.toml          (system defaults, shipped in ISO)

Outputs → ~/.vinos/routines/state/&lt;name&gt;/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM.md
Ledger  → ~/.vinos/routines/state/ledger.db

List

$ vinos-routine list
NAME                           ENABLED    LAST RUN                 SCHEDULE
day-brief                      no         never                    *-*-* 06:00:00
evening-shutdown               no         never                    *-*-* 18:00:00

Screenshot pending: foot terminal after `vinos-routine list`

vinos-routine list — see SCREENSHOTS_NEEDED.md #shot-23.

Everything shipped is disabled by default. The first-boot flow asks which you want on; you can always change your mind with enable / disable.

Enable

Turns on the systemd user timer. From then on, the routine runs on its schedule until you disable it.

$ vinos-routine enable day-brief
✓ enabled day-brief.timer
  next run  Sat 2026-07-26 06:00:05 EDT  (in 6h 42m)

Run once, ad hoc

Skips the schedule and streams to stdout. Useful when you’re editing a routine and want fast feedback.

$ vinos-routine run day-brief
→ routine    day-brief
→ schedule   *-*-* 06:00:00
→ model      claude-sonnet-4-6           (anthropic)
→ tools      2 read-globs, 2 shell cmds

✓ context assembled       (3 sources · 412 tokens)
✓ agent step 1/3          claude-sonnet-4-6 · 1.4s
✓ agent step 2/3          claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2.1s
✓ agent step 3/3          claude-sonnet-4-6 · 0.9s
✓ rendered brief          → ~/.vinos/routines/state/day-brief/2026-07-26-0812.md
  cost   $0.0038  (2,847 in / 691 out)

Screenshot pending: foot terminal in the middle of `vinos-routine run day-brief`

Ad-hoc routine run — see SCREENSHOTS_NEEDED.md #shot-24.

Logs

Journal-backed. --tail follows in real time.

$ vinos-routine logs day-brief --tail
2026-07-26 06:00:05 [day-brief] starting scheduled run
2026-07-26 06:00:05 [day-brief] resolved route=anthropic model=claude-sonnet-4-6
2026-07-26 06:00:06 [day-brief] tool read:~/Notes/today.md → 4 bytes
2026-07-26 06:00:07 [day-brief] tool shell:gh api /notifications → 6.3 KB (0 exit)
2026-07-26 06:00:11 [day-brief] wrote 2026-07-26-0600.md (871 bytes)
2026-07-26 06:00:11 [day-brief] ledger: 2847 in, 691 out, $0.0038, exit=0

Cost

The ledger is a SQLite file at ~/.vinos/routines/state/ledger.db. vinos-routine cost renders the last 20 rows and a running total.

$ vinos-routine cost
LAST 20 RUNS
DATE        ROUTINE            MODEL                  IN     OUT    $
2026-07-26  day-brief          claude-sonnet-4-6      2847   691    0.0038
2026-07-26  evening-shutdown   claude-sonnet-4-6      1284   402    0.0021
2026-07-25  day-brief          claude-sonnet-4-6      3011   612    0.0039
2026-07-25  research-recap     llama3.2 (ollama)      8412  1204    0.0000
...

DAILY TOTAL   $0.0098   (of $0.20 cap)
WEEKLY TOTAL  $0.0483

Screenshot pending: foot terminal after `vinos-routine cost` — sqlite ledger dump

Cost ledger — see SCREENSHOTS_NEEDED.md #shot-25.

Local Ollama routes always cost $0.0000 — the ledger still records in/out tokens so you can see where your context is going.

Where the output goes

Every run writes a markdown file to ~/.vinos/routines/state/<name>/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM.md. Open the whole day at once with:

$ vinos-brief

vinos-brief walker panel with today's day-brief — vinos-brief showing today's outputs — see SCREENSHOTS_NEEDED.md #shot-20.

Or scope to one routine:

$ vinos-brief day-brief

Screenshot pending: vinos-brief markdown output in a foot terminal

vinos-brief in a terminal — see SCREENSHOTS_NEEDED.md #shot-26.

Next: write your own routine.