Setting Up Laravel’s Task Scheduler with Cron (Laravel 12)

Laravel’s scheduler still sits on top of cron.

You only need one cron entry.

Add the cron entry

crontab -e

crontab -e

Add:

* * * * * /usr/bin/php8.2 /var/www/myapp/artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

* * * * * /usr/bin/php8.2 /var/www/myapp/artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Key points:

• Use full paths
• Redirect output unless debugging

Define scheduled tasks

Scheduled tasks live in routes/console.php.

Here’s an example:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schedule;

Schedule::command('queue:restart')
    ->dailyAt('02:00');

Schedule::command('backup:run')
    ->daily()
    ->withoutOverlapping();

Schedule::call(function () {
    CleanupJob::dispatch();
})->hourly();

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schedule;

Schedule::command('queue:restart')
    ->dailyAt('02:00');

Schedule::command('backup:run')
    ->daily()
    ->withoutOverlapping();

Schedule::call(function () {
    CleanupJob::dispatch();
})->hourly();

This keeps scheduling logic simple and close to your CLI commands.

Schedule jobs, not heavy logic

Best practice is to dispatch jobs rather than doing work directly:

Schedule::call(fn () => SyncDataJob::dispatch())
    ->everyTenMinutes();

Schedule::call(fn () => SyncDataJob::dispatch())
    ->everyTenMinutes();

Cron stays fast, queues do the heavy lifting.

Prevent overlapping tasks

For anything long running

->withoutOverlapping()

->withoutOverlapping()

This relies on cache locking, so make sure cache is configured correctly.

Debugging when nothing runs

Run manually:

php artisan schedule:run

php artisan schedule:run

If this works but cron doesn’t, check:

• You’ve specified the right path to PHP
• That you’re using the right cron user
• Environment variables are correct and available

How this fits together

Typical production setup:

• Cron triggers scheduler
• Scheduler dispatches jobs
• Supervisor runs workers

Each tool does one job – no magic.