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Operating Agents

Deploying an agent is the start. This page covers the day-2 surface: running agents on a schedule, watching a run as it executes, replaying a run, getting alerted when an agent breaks, and adjusting runtime behavior without a redeploy.

Run on a schedule​

Add a schedule block to your agent in waxell.yaml:

agents:
- name: daily_digest_agent
version: 1.0.0
schedule: "0 9 * * *" # every day at 09:00 UTC

Or the expanded form for payloads, named slots, and multiple schedules:

    schedule:
- cron: "0 9 * * *"
signal: build_digest # a signal declared on this agent (optional)
payload: { mode: full }
slot: morning
- cron: "0 17 * * 5"
payload: { mode: weekly }
slot: friday-wrap

Cron expressions are five-field (minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week) and evaluate in UTC with minute resolution.

Scheduled fires go through the same dispatch path as an API signal fire — governance policies, plan quotas, and runtime settings all apply. If the schedule names a signal, that signal fires exactly as if you'd called the webhook; without one, the agent is dispatched directly.

Missed windows are skipped, never backfilled: if the platform is briefly unavailable across a */5 schedule, you get one catch-up run, not a burst.

Manage schedules from the CLI:

wax agents schedule my-agent                      # show schedules + next fire
wax agents schedule my-agent --set "*/30 * * * *" # add or change
wax agents schedule my-agent --pause # stop firing
wax agents schedule my-agent --resume
wax agents schedule my-agent --delete

or from the agent's Overview page (Schedules section), which shows the next fire time and links to the last scheduled run. A schedule set from the CLI or UI is operator-owned: it survives future pushes. Schedules declared in waxell.yaml re-sync on every push.

Watch a run live​

wax runs tail <run-id>

Streams the run's event timeline — tool calls, LLM calls, agent messages — as each completes, then prints the final result. Works on any run: fired, scheduled, replayed, or started from the UI. Find run IDs with wax runs list, or follow a fresh fire directly:

wax signals fire my_signal --payload '{...}' --stream

Replay a run​

Re-fire any runtime run with its original inputs:

wax runs replay <run-id>          # queue the replay
wax runs replay <run-id> --tail # queue and follow it live

The replay is a new run through the normal execution path — quotas and governance apply — with a replay_of reference back to the source run. The original run is never modified. In the app, use the Replay button on any runtime execution's detail page.

Failure alerts​

On the agent's Overview page, click Alert me on failures to get an email after 3 consecutive failed runs (one notification per cooldown window, so a bad night doesn't flood your inbox).

For finer control, build rules in Settings → Alerts: error-rate thresholds, cost thresholds, p95 latency, score thresholds, and run-failure rules with a configurable consecutive-failure count — each deliverable to email, Slack, or a webhook, scoped to one agent or the whole fleet.

Runtime settings without a redeploy​

The Runtime settings section on the agent Overview shows the declared values from waxell.yaml and lets an operator override them in place:

  • Timeout — per-run wall-clock cap
  • Execution mode — shared or isolated
  • Tier hint and sensitivity — placement and routing inputs

Overrides win over the manifest and survive pushes until cleared — an incident-time timeout bump can't be wiped by the next deploy. The same section shows when an override is active and who set it.

Build status​

Agents with a dependencies block run in a self-contained container built from your requirements. Check the build from the CLI:

wax agents builds my-agent

or the Build & execution panel on the agent Overview, which live-updates while a build is in flight and keeps the build history (image, task definition, logs).

Compute usage​

Every runtime run meters CPU-seconds and memory-GB-hours. See the tenant picture in Analyze → Compute (totals, per-agent, per-day, per disposition — CSV exportable), the per-agent picture on each agent's Overview, and your plan quota position in Billing or:

wax billing usage