---
license: apache-2.0
language:
  - en
library_name: mlx
pipeline_tag: text-generation
base_model: Qwen/Qwen2.5-1.5B-Instruct
tags:
  - cron
  - systemd
  - devops
  - schedule
  - text-generation
  - mlx
  - lora
datasets:
  - Shpigford/cron-schedule-conversion
---

# Shpigford/cron-mini

A small fine-tuned language model that converts natural-language schedules into cron expressions and systemd `OnCalendar` strings.

## What it does

```
Input:  every Tuesday at 3am except December

Output: {"cron": "0 3 * 1-11 2",
         "systemd": "Tue *-01..11-* 03:00:00",
         "note": "Months 1-11 only excludes December."}
```

It handles:

- Standard schedules (daily, weekly, monthly, every N minutes/hours)
- Holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Halloween, etc.)
- Casual time references ("lunchtime", "before bed", "first thing in the morning")
- Ordinal weekdays ("second Tuesday of the month", "last Friday")
- Negative specifications ("every day except Sunday", "all months except December")
- Sub-minute intervals (cron can't, systemd can — model annotates the limitation)
- Awkward intervals (every 90 minutes — cron can't, expanded across the day)
- Compound schedules requiring multiple cron lines
- systemd-specific features (`OnBootSec=`, `Persistent=`, `RandomizedDelaySec=`)
- Time zones (sets `TZ=` for cron, uses `Asia/Tokyo`-style for systemd)
- Typos and informal phrasings ("evry tues @ 3am")

## Usage

### MLX (Apple Silicon)

```python
from mlx_lm import load, generate

model, tokenizer = load("Shpigford/cron-mini")

SYSTEM = ("You convert natural-language schedules into cron expressions and "
          "systemd OnCalendar strings. Output JSON with keys: cron, systemd, "
          "note. If cron cannot exactly express the schedule, put the closest "
          "valid cron and explain in note. Do not output anything else.")

messages = [
    {"role": "system", "content": SYSTEM},
    {"role": "user", "content": "Convert this schedule to cron and systemd OnCalendar: every weekday at 9am"},
]
prompt = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(messages, add_generation_prompt=True, tokenize=False)
print(generate(model, tokenizer, prompt=prompt, max_tokens=200, temp=0.0))
```

### Transformers (any platform)

```python
from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer

model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained("Shpigford/cron-mini", torch_dtype="auto", device_map="auto")
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("Shpigford/cron-mini")

SYSTEM = "..."  # same as above
messages = [
    {"role": "system", "content": SYSTEM},
    {"role": "user", "content": "Convert this schedule to cron and systemd OnCalendar: every weekday at 9am"},
]
inputs = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(messages, add_generation_prompt=True, return_tensors="pt").to(model.device)
out = model.generate(inputs, max_new_tokens=200, do_sample=False)
print(tokenizer.decode(out[0][inputs.shape[1]:], skip_special_tokens=True))
```

### llama.cpp / Ollama (GGUF)

A GGUF version is available — see the Files tab for `.gguf` files. Load with llama.cpp or import into Ollama:

```bash
ollama create cron-mini -f Modelfile
```

## Evaluation

Held-out test set of 91 cases including all the trick categories above:

- **Overall (cron+systemd both correct):** 63/91 (69.2%)
- **Cron exact match:** 73/91 (80.2%)
- **Cron syntactically valid:** 87/91 (95.6%)
- **systemd exact match:** 71/91 (78.0%)

See `eval_results.json` in this repo for per-case results.

## Training

- **Base model:** `Qwen/Qwen2.5-1.5B-Instruct` (Apache 2.0)
- **Method:** LoRA fine-tune via [mlx-lm](https://github.com/ml-explore/mlx-examples/tree/main/llms)
- **Hardware:** M4 Mac mini, 16GB unified memory
- **Dataset:** ~3000 examples — hand-crafted hard cases + templated generation + Claude-API paraphrases and synthetic novel cases (verified with a self-check pass)
- **Dataset on HF:** [Shpigford/cron-schedule-conversion](https://huggingface.co/datasets/Shpigford/cron-schedule-conversion)

## Limitations

- The model emits a single best-guess for ambiguous fuzzy times (e.g., "morning" → 7am). It will not ask clarifying questions.
- For "every other Monday" / "biweekly" / "fortnightly" patterns, cron cannot express them natively — the model emits "every Monday" and notes the limitation. Gate in your script with a week-of-year check.
- For "last day of month" / "last Friday", cron has no native expression — the model approximates with day-of-month ranges and flags the limitation.
- Vixie cron OR-matches DOM and DOW when both are restricted; the model emits expressions that work under the more common AND-matching interpretation. Verify on your specific cron implementation.
- Time zone handling: cron has no built-in TZ field; the model emits the schedule in the system's local time and notes when a `TZ=` env var is needed.
- Trained on English. Other languages will likely degrade significantly.

## License

Apache 2.0, same as the base model.

## Citation

If you find this useful:

```bibtex
@misc{cron-mini,
  author = {Pigford, Josh},
  title = {Cron-Mini: A Small Model for Schedule Conversion},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Hugging Face},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/Shpigford/cron-mini}
}
```