Convert cron expressions to human-readable descriptions via a paid x402 API endpoint.
What it does
AgentUtil Cron `/v1/explain` is one endpoint in a suite of cron-expression tools hosted at cron.agentutil.net. It accepts a standard 5-field cron expression (or special strings like `@daily`, `@hourly`) and returns a human-readable description along with a breakdown of each field (minute, hour, day_of_month, month, day_of_week).
The broader AgentUtil Cron service also offers three sibling endpoints: `/v1/parse` (natural-language to cron, regex/keyword-based with no LLM), `/v1/next` (calculate next N execution times with timezone support), and `/v1/validate` (validate and normalize expressions). All endpoints use POST with JSON bodies.
Pricing is documented in the OpenAPI spec's `x-pricing` extension: a free tier of 10 requests per day per IP with no signup, and paid access via the x402 protocol settling in USDC on Base at $0.001 per request. Note that during probing the endpoint returned HTTP 400 (not the expected 402 payment challenge), likely because the request body was empty/malformed rather than because the endpoint is down — the root domain returns 200 and serves a working landing page. The endpoint's liveness via x402 could not be fully confirmed.
Capabilities
Use cases
- —Agents that need to explain cron schedules to users in plain English
- —Automated pipelines that validate cron expressions before deploying scheduled jobs
- —Converting natural-language scheduling requests into cron syntax
- —Calculating upcoming execution times for a given cron expression in a specific timezone
Fit
Best for
- —AI agents that manage scheduled tasks and need cron utilities
- —DevOps automation requiring cron validation and explanation
- —Chatbots that translate user scheduling intent into cron expressions
Not for
- —Running or executing scheduled jobs (this is a parsing/explanation tool only)
- —High-volume batch processing where a local cron library would be more efficient
Quick start
curl -X POST https://cron.agentutil.net/v1/explain \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"expression": "*/5 * * * *"}'Example
Request
{
"expression": "*/5 * * * *"
}Response
{
"fields": {
"hour": "*",
"month": "*",
"minute": "*/5",
"day_of_week": "*",
"day_of_month": "*"
},
"expression": "*/5 * * * *",
"description": "Every 5 minutes"
}Endpoint
Quality
Full OpenAPI schema with clear request/response definitions and documented pricing. However, the x402 challenge was not confirmed (endpoint returned 400 instead of 402), no dedicated docs or examples pages exist, and crawled pages beyond the root all returned 404. Liveness is plausible but not fully verified.
Warnings
- —x402 payment challenge not confirmed: endpoint returned HTTP 400 on POST probe (likely due to missing request body), not the expected 402
- —No dedicated documentation, pricing, or API reference pages were found (all returned 404)
- —Free tier limit (10/day/IP) and paid pricing ($0.001/req) are sourced only from the OpenAPI x-pricing extension, not from a public pricing page
Citations
- —The service offers four endpoints: explain, parse, next, and validate for cron expressionshttps://cron.agentutil.net
- —Free tier allows 10 requests per day per IP; paid tier costs $0.001 per request in USDC on Base via x402https://cron.agentutil.net
- —The /v1/parse endpoint uses regex/keyword matching, not an LLMhttps://cron.agentutil.net
- —Landing page displays a working cron tool demo showing 'Every 5 minutes' for */5 * * * *https://cron.agentutil.net