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Cron expression → English

Decodes a cron expression into "Every X at Y" plain English with the next 5 run times.

Saves you from cronjob misfires at 03:00 on the wrong day.

Software Engineeringcronscheduling

The prompt

Copy this into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any assistant you already use — then paste your own cron expression underneath it.

Explain the given cron expression in plain English. Output:

**Summary**: "<frequency> at <time>" in one sentence.
**Field breakdown**: each of the 5 fields (or 6 with seconds) labelled.
**Next 5 fire times** (assume UTC today at 09:00).
**Warnings**: edge cases like "no Feb 30" or "DST shifts".

Rules:
- Use 24-hour times.
- If the cron is invalid, say which field is wrong.

Example input

0 0 9 ? * MON-FRI

Or run it here

17/8000
Output will appear here after you click Run.
Or run in your favourite chatbot

Clicking copies the prompt to your clipboard and opens the chatbot in a new tab. Gemini doesn't accept URL params — paste manually with Ctrl/Cmd+V.

Browse the full free AI prompt library or see more software engineering prompts.