Cron and automation

Ripline works well in cron, CI, or any non-interactive automation where you want a repeatable workflow invocation with explicit inputs and outputs.

Minimal cron example

0 * * * * cd /path/to/ripline && node bin/ripline.js run \
  --pipeline pipelines/examples/hello-world.yaml \
  --input '{"person":"cron","goal":"hourly check-in"}' \
  --output /tmp/ripline-output.json

Using input and output files

For larger inputs, keep them in files instead of embedding JSON in the cron entry:

node bin/ripline.js run \
  --pipeline /path/to/pipeline.yaml \
  --input /path/to/inputs.json \
  --output /path/to/output.json

This makes scheduled runs easier to review, diff, and regenerate.

CI example

npm install
npm run build
node bin/ripline.js run \
  --pipeline pipelines/examples/hello-world.yaml \
  --input samples/hello-world-inputs.json

Failure handling

• Ripline exits with a non-zero status on failure, so cron and CI can alert or retry.
• Use ripline run --resume <runId> when you want to continue a persisted run after a failure.
• Use ripline logs <runId> or the HTTP log endpoints to inspect failures without rerunning immediately.
• Long-lived servers now reclaim dead-owned running records before auto-dispatch treats the queue as blocked. This prevents a crashed standalone ripline run process from wedging background execution until the next full restart.

Helpful environment variables

Variable	Description
RIPLINE_INPUTS	Path to a JSON input file for helper scripts or wrappers
RIPLINE_OUT	Path to write final JSON output for helper scripts or wrappers