Cron Runner (Rust) — per-second HTTP scheduler

Deploy a tiny Rust service that triggers HTTP requests using 6-field cron expressions (seconds included). Each request carries X-Cron-Secret for simple middleware-based auth. Supports custom headers and optional body per job.

Deploy and Host

Use the one‑click button on Railway to deploy this template. The service runs as a persistent process and schedules requests internally—no Railway Cron needed. Provide the environment variables below and deploy to your desired region.

About Hosting

This service is designed to run continuously with a very small memory/CPU footprint. It issues outbound HTTP requests at the times defined by your cron expressions. Choose a region close to your target APIs to reduce latency.

Why Deploy

• Replace heavyweight schedulers with a minimal Rust binary.
• Run cron with second-level precision.
• Centralize multiple HTTP jobs in one place (headers, bodies, secrets).
• Keep simple transparent logs for success/failure.

Common Use Cases

• Pinging internal or public endpoints on a schedule.
• Kicking background jobs on a Laravel/Symfony/NestJS/Rails backend via authenticated webhook.
• Refreshing caches, tokens, or pre-warming data.
• Triggering ETL or status checks at fine-grained intervals.

Dependencies for

This template requires only environment variables. No external databases or queues are needed by default.

Deployment Dependencies

• SECRET (required): shared secret sent as X-Cron-Secret.
• CRON_JOBS (required): the list of scheduled HTTP jobs.

How to use

1. Click Deploy on Railway from this template.

2. In the service Variables, set:

   • SECRET: the secret sent as X-Cron-Secret.
   • CRON_JOBS: the jobs list (see syntax below).

3. Deploy as a persistent service (not a native Railway cron).

CRON_JOBS syntax

Jobs are separated by “;” or new lines. Format: METHOD|URL|CRON_EXPR|HEADERS|BODY

• METHOD: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
• URL: HTTP(S) endpoint (query params allowed)
• CRON_EXPR: 6-field cron with seconds
• HEADERS (optional): comma-separated Name:Value pairs
• BODY (optional): raw string

Examples

GET|https://httpbingo.org/status/204|0 * * * * *||
POST|https://httpbin.org/post|*/30 * * * * *|Content-Type:application/json|{"ping":true}
PATCH|https://postman-echo.com/patch|15 * * * * *|Authorization:Bearer XYZ,Content-Type:application/json|{"name":"demo"}
DELETE|https://postman-echo.com/delete|45 * * * * *||

Logs

The service prints one line per execution:

• OK with the HTTP status on success.
• FAIL with either HTTP error (4xx/5xx) or transport error.

Tech

• Rust + ureq (sync, minimal) for HTTP.
• cron crate for per-second schedules.