January 13, 2026
Cron Wars: Fast vs Old Guard
Show HN: FastScheduler – Decorator-first Python task scheduler, async support
FastScheduler drops: fans cheer, old-school crowd claps back
TLDR: FastScheduler is a simple Python job runner with a pretty dashboard and cron-like schedules. The comments split between cheers for easy setup, pushback from “use crontab or APScheduler” purists, and a call for UI-defined jobs, while would-be contributors ask for a roadmap.
HN got a new toy: FastScheduler, a Python add-on that lets you schedule code like setting alarms — with one-line “stickers” above your functions, built-in retries, timeouts, time zones, cron-like schedules, and a slick real-time dashboard. Fans swooned, calling it perfect for quick jobs without spinning up a whole system. One commenter even asked for a roadmap so they could jump in with pull requests — the open-source equivalent of “put me in, coach!”
Then came the drama. Skeptics asked the classic: how is this different from the long-standing APScheduler? The old-school crew fired the cannon: why not just use crontab (the system’s built-in scheduler) or Kubernetes CronJobs? Translation: do we really need another scheduler? Meanwhile, someone demanded power-user candy — “Let me define jobs in the UI and I’ll deploy today.” Celery (a popular task queue) got roasted as overkill salad for simple chores, while Team Fast argued that the decorator approach is cleaner and faster to get going. It’s Team “Push Button, Get Tasks” versus Team “Use the tools we already have”, and the comment section turned into a lively kitchen where “cron vs convenience” was the hot dish of the day.
Key Points
- •FastScheduler is a decorator-first Python task scheduler with native async support.
- •Supports interval, time-based, one-time, and cron expression scheduling (cron via optional extra).
- •Includes timezone-aware scheduling with tz parameters and chainable tz() methods.
- •Provides operational controls: persistent state, retries with exponential backoff, timeouts, pause/resume/cancel, and a dead letter queue.
- •Offers a FastAPI-powered real-time dashboard with simple router integration and pip install extras.