WordPress plugin: cron & background jobs

Scheduled work — daily cleanup, periodic API sync, deferred email send, retry on failed webhook delivery — is a normal part of plugin life. WordPress ships its own cron primitive (wp_schedule_event), and the WooCommerce-bundled Action Scheduler library extends the model into a proper queue. Picking between them and using the chosen one correctly is what this skill covers.

When to use this skill

Trigger when ANY of the following is true:

• Scheduling a periodic task (daily option cleanup, hourly token refresh, weekly digest email).
• Deferring work off the request thread (e.g. send email after the form submission returns).
• Debugging "my cron event was registered but never fires" or "fires multiple times" or "fires hours late".
• Deciding between native WP cron and Action Scheduler for a non-trivial background workload.
• Reviewing a plugin's activation / deactivation hooks for cron schedule + clear correctness.

Mental model — WP cron is pseudo-cron, not real cron

WordPress cron does NOT run on a system schedule. There is no cron daemon waking WP up. Instead:

1. Page request comes in.
2. On init, WordPress calls wp_cron() (wp-includes/default-filters.php).
3. Since WP 6.9, wp_cron() registers _wp_cron() on shutdown for normal requests, so the cron spawn does not hurt TTFB as much. With ALTERNATE_WP_CRON, it still uses wp_loaded.
4. _wp_cron() checks for due events and makes a non-blocking loopback request to /wp-cron.php, which actually runs the due events.

Implications:

• No traffic = no cron. A site with 5 visitors/day fires cron events 5 times/day, max. A "daily" event on a low-traffic site might run every 3 days.
• Late firing is normal. An "hourly" event scheduled at noon may fire at 12:47 if that's when the next visitor lands.
• Concurrent visitors can race. WP has internal locking but it's best-effort; on a busy site, two requests may both attempt to spawn the same event before the lock takes effect.
• Long-running events block the loopback. If your daily_cleanup callback runs 90 seconds, the wp-cron.php request takes 90 seconds. Other due events in that batch wait.

For real-time precision OR predictable timing, set DISABLE_WP_CRON in wp-config.php and configure system cron to call wp-cron.php every minute:

define( 'DISABLE_WP_CRON', true );

* * * * * curl -s https://example.com/wp-cron.php > /dev/null 2>&1

This is host-level setup, NOT the plugin's responsibility — but the plugin's docs should mention it for users with timing-sensitive workloads.

Native WP cron — the basic API

// 1. Register a custom interval (only needed for non-default recurrences).
add_filter( 'cron_schedules', static function ( array $schedules ): array {
    $schedules['every_six_hours'] = array(
        'interval' => 6 * HOUR_IN_SECONDS,
        'display'  => __( 'Every 6 Hours', 'myplugin' ),
    );
    return $schedules;
} );

// 2. Schedule on activation (idempotently — see below).
register_activation_hook( __FILE__, static function (): void {
    if ( ! wp_next_scheduled( 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' ) ) {
        wp_schedule_event( time() + DAY_IN_SECONDS, 'daily', 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' );
    }
} );

// 3. Wire the callback at runtime (in a 'plugins_loaded' callback or top-level).
add_action( 'myplugin_daily_cleanup', static function (): void {
    // The actual work.
    myplugin_purge_old_logs();
} );

// 4. Clear on deactivation. wp_unschedule_hook clears ALL events for the hook
//    regardless of $args; safer than wp_clear_scheduled_hook($hook, $args)
//    which requires the exact args used at schedule time.
register_deactivation_hook( __FILE__, static function (): void {
    wp_unschedule_hook( 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' );
} );

The cron_schedules filter returns an array; each schedule has interval (seconds) and display (translated label). WP defaults: 'hourly' (3600), 'twicedaily' (43200), 'daily' (86400), 'weekly' (604800).

If you schedule a custom recurrence during activation, the cron_schedules filter must already be registered before the activation callback calls wp_schedule_event(). A filter hidden inside a runtime object that only boots on plugins_loaded can be missing during activation flows.

For critical scheduling, pass $wp_error=true and log or surface failures:

$result = wp_schedule_event( time() + DAY_IN_SECONDS, 'daily', 'myplugin_daily_cleanup', array(), true );
if ( is_wp_error( $result ) ) {
    error_log( 'MyPlugin cron schedule failed: ' . $result->get_error_message() );
}

Idempotent scheduling

The wp_next_scheduled guard is non-negotiable. Without it, every plugin reactivation creates a duplicate event:

// WRONG — creates a new event every time activation fires
register_activation_hook( __FILE__, function () {
    wp_schedule_event( time(), 'daily', 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' );
} );
// After 5 reactivations: 5 events, the callback runs 5 times daily.

// RIGHT
if ( ! wp_next_scheduled( 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' ) ) {
    wp_schedule_event( time() + DAY_IN_SECONDS, 'daily', 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' );
}

wp_next_scheduled( $hook, $args ) returns the timestamp of the next pending event matching the hook + args, or false if none exists. Args matter — events with different $args are distinct events under the same hook. Schedule with the same args you'll check.

One-shot deferred work

For "do this once, soon" (e.g. send a notification after a form submit, defer a heavy compute off the request):

wp_schedule_single_event( time() + 30, 'myplugin_send_followup', array( $user_id, $form_id ) );

Use time() + N for a delay; use time() (or time() + 1) to fire as soon as possible. WP de-duplicates: scheduling the same hook + args within the duplicate window around an existing pending event returns false (or WP_Error when $wp_error=true). This is verified in wp_schedule_single_event().

Multisite — cron is per-blog

Each site in a multisite network has its own scheduled events. wp_schedule_event writes to the current blog's cron option; wp_unschedule_hook reads from the current blog only. Treat cron as a per-site primitive.

For a network-wide periodic task, two options:

1. Schedule per site at activation (network activation iterates sites, see wp-plugin-lifecycle):

   foreach ( get_sites( array( 'fields' => 'ids' ) ) as $site_id ) {
       switch_to_blog( $site_id );
       if ( ! wp_next_scheduled( 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' ) ) {
           wp_schedule_event( time() + DAY_IN_SECONDS, 'daily', 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' );
       }
       restore_current_blog();
   }

1. Schedule once on the main blog if the work is genuinely site-wide (writes to network options, not per-blog data). Document the choice — future maintainers will assume per-site otherwise.

Multisite cron caveat: this skill's authoring environment is single-site. The above is source-derived from wp-includes/cron.php but not end-to-end tested in a real network. Verify before relying.

Action Scheduler — when WP cron is not enough

Action Scheduler is a queue-style background-job library bundled with WooCommerce (and standalone available via Composer). It uses its own DB tables instead of wp_options and adds capabilities WP cron doesn't have.

When to graduate from WP cron to Action Scheduler:

Detection in code:

if ( function_exists( 'as_schedule_recurring_action' ) ) {
    $supports_unique = ( new ReflectionFunction( 'as_schedule_recurring_action' ) )->getNumberOfParameters() >= 6;

    if ( $supports_unique ) {
        as_schedule_recurring_action(
            time() + DAY_IN_SECONDS,    // first run
            DAY_IN_SECONDS,              // interval
            'myplugin_daily_cleanup',
            array(),                     // args
            'myplugin',                  // group (logical bucket)
            true                         // unique in modern Action Scheduler
        );
    } elseif ( ! as_next_scheduled_action( 'myplugin_daily_cleanup', array(), 'myplugin' ) ) {
        as_schedule_recurring_action(
            time() + DAY_IN_SECONDS,
            DAY_IN_SECONDS,
            'myplugin_daily_cleanup',
            array(),
            'myplugin'
        );
    }
} else {
    // Fall back to native WP cron.
    if ( ! wp_next_scheduled( 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' ) ) {
        wp_schedule_event( time() + DAY_IN_SECONDS, 'daily', 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' );
    }
}

The corresponding clear:

if ( function_exists( 'as_unschedule_all_actions' ) ) {
    as_unschedule_all_actions( 'myplugin_daily_cleanup', array(), 'myplugin' );
} else {
    wp_unschedule_hook( 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' );
}

For one-shot deferred work, the parallel pair is as_schedule_single_action() / wp_schedule_single_event(). Modern Action Scheduler's $unique flag handles hook+group singleton de-duplication explicitly; per-entity jobs should use exact-args guards plus idempotent callbacks.

The cost of Action Scheduler: it's a hard dependency. For a small plugin with 1-2 daily events on a low-traffic site, native WP cron is fine. Don't pull in WooCommerce or vendor Action Scheduler for a single hourly cleanup.

Long-running work and idempotency

Cron callbacks run inline. A 60-second daily_cleanup ties up the whole cron batch for that minute. Two patterns to avoid blocking:

• Chunk and re-schedule: process N rows, then wp_schedule_single_event( time() + 1, 'myplugin_daily_cleanup' ) if more remain.
• Defer per-item to single events: wp_schedule_single_event( time(), 'myplugin_process_item', array( $id ) ) per row. Parallelizes well with Action Scheduler; overkill for native WP cron.

Even with wp_next_scheduled guards at schedule time, the callback must be idempotent — manual triggers (spawn_cron), restored backups, WP-CLI wp cron event run, and Action Scheduler retries can all replay events. Two minimal patterns:

// Gate by data state — preferred when the work is per-entity.
add_action( 'myplugin_send_invoice', static function ( int $order_id ): void {
    if ( get_post_meta( $order_id, '_invoice_sent', true ) ) return;
    myplugin_send( $order_id );
    update_post_meta( $order_id, '_invoice_sent', time() );
} );

// Soft lock + last-success gate — for global periodic jobs.
add_action( 'myplugin_daily_cleanup', static function (): void {
    $last = (int) get_option( 'myplugin_cleanup_last_success', 0 );
    if ( time() - $last < HOUR_IN_SECONDS ) return;

    if ( get_transient( 'myplugin_cleanup_lock' ) ) return;
    set_transient( 'myplugin_cleanup_lock', 1, 15 * MINUTE_IN_SECONDS );

    try {
        myplugin_run_cleanup();
        update_option( 'myplugin_cleanup_last_success', time(), false );
    } finally {
        delete_transient( 'myplugin_cleanup_lock' );
    }
} );

The transient lock and get_option+update_option pattern is non-atomic (TOCTOU race) but good enough for soft idempotency. For a global singleton, modern Action Scheduler's $unique support can help; for per-entity hard idempotency, use a unique-key insert into a custom table as the gate.

Critical rules

• WP cron is pseudo-cron. WordPress calls wp_cron() on init; since WP 6.9 the normal spawn runs on shutdown (wp_loaded for ALTERNATE_WP_CRON). No traffic = no cron. Use DISABLE_WP_CRON + system cron for timing-critical work.
• Always guard schedule with `wp_next_scheduled` to prevent duplicate events on reactivation.
• Check scheduling failures for custom intervals or important jobs by passing $wp_error=true.
• Always pair schedule (activation) with clear (deactivation) using wp_unschedule_hook (since WP 4.9, hook+args agnostic).
• Custom intervals via `cron_schedules` filter — return an array with interval (seconds) + display (label).
• Cron is per-blog in multisite — schedule per-site if the work is per-site.
• Make callbacks idempotent. Data-state check, soft lock, or last_success timestamp gate.
• Long-running work goes in chunks (re-schedule a single event after a batch) — don't block the worker.
• Graduate to Action Scheduler when you need queue semantics: 10k+ actions, status tracking, retry, duplicate guards, admin UI. Don't pull it in for one-off uses.

Common mistakes

// WRONG — duplicate events on every reactivation
register_activation_hook( __FILE__, function () {
    wp_schedule_event( time(), 'daily', 'myplugin_cleanup' );
} );

// WRONG — args mismatch, deactivation fails to clear the event
register_activation_hook( __FILE__, function () {
    wp_schedule_event( time(), 'daily', 'myplugin_cleanup', array( 'mode' => 'fast' ) );
} );
register_deactivation_hook( __FILE__, function () {
    wp_clear_scheduled_hook( 'myplugin_cleanup' ); // missing args
} );
// Use wp_unschedule_hook instead.

// WRONG — assumes cron fires at the registered time
wp_schedule_event( time() + 60, 'hourly', 'myplugin_send_invoices_at_4pm' );
// On a low-traffic site this might run at 5:13 PM, 6:48 PM, 9:02 PM...

// WRONG — non-idempotent callback fires twice on retry
add_action( 'myplugin_charge_card', function ( $order_id ) {
    stripe_charge( $order_id ); // bills user twice on retry
} );

// RIGHT — gate by data state
add_action( 'myplugin_charge_card', function ( $order_id ) {
    if ( get_post_meta( $order_id, '_charged', true ) ) return;
    stripe_charge( $order_id );
    update_post_meta( $order_id, '_charged', time() );
} );

// WRONG — registering 10,000 actions in wp-cron
foreach ( $orders as $order ) {
    wp_schedule_single_event( time(), 'myplugin_process', array( $order->id ) );
}
// 10k events bloats the autoloaded 'cron' option; site grinds.
// Use Action Scheduler for this scale.

Cross-references

• Run `wp-plugin-lifecycle` for the activation-schedule / deactivation-clear pattern in full lifecycle context — including multisite-aware $network_wide callback args.
• Run `wp-plugin-options-storage` for the warning about the autoloaded cron option — at scale (10k+ events) it becomes the autoload bottleneck.
• Run `wp-security-audit` on cron callbacks — they run with no current user, so capability checks based on a "logged in user" don't work. Treat persisted args / IDs as untrusted input.
• Run `wp-action-scheduler` once the design graduates to Action Scheduler — this skill only covers the decision point and minimal fallback pattern.

What this skill does NOT cover

• Action Scheduler internal architecture, queue tables, runner process, WP-CLI commands, and 3.9.x API details — covered by wp-action-scheduler.
• WP-CLI cron commands (wp cron event list, wp cron event run, wp cron schedule list) — adjacent topic, useful for debugging but separate skill scope.
• External queue systems (Redis Queue, AWS SQS, Beanstalkd) integrated into WP — viable for ultra-high-throughput plugins but out of WP-native scope.
• Server-side cron daemon configuration.

References

• WP Cron Handbook: developer.wordpress.org/plugins/cron/
• wp_schedule_event / wp_schedule_single_event / wp_next_scheduled / wp_unschedule_hook: wp-includes/cron.php
• cron_schedules filter: developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/cron_schedules/
• WP 6.9 cron change (_wp_cron moved to shutdown): wp-includes/cron.php wp_cron() docblock
• Action Scheduler: actionscheduler.org, bundled in WooCommerce