cron-explainer
A tiny pay-per-call API that parses cron expressions, returns the next N fire
times, and produces a short English description. Timezone-aware (IANA).
Live: https://cron-explainer.cron-explainer-prod.workers.dev/
Pricing: 0.01 EUR per successful call, prepaid via Stripe Checkout in packs of 500 / 5,000 / 50,000 calls. Non-2xx responses are refunded. No subscription. Keys never expire.
Quick start
- Get a key at https://cron-explainer.cron-explainer-prod.workers.dev/ (Stripe Checkout, €5 minimum).
- Copy the key — it's shown exactly once.
- Call the API:
curl -X POST https://cron-explainer.cron-explainer-prod.workers.dev/v1/explain \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-H "x-api-key: $YOUR_KEY" \
-d '{"cron":"0 9 * * 1-5","tz":"Europe/Lisbon","n":3}'
Response:
{
"input": {"cron":"0 9 * * 1-5","tz":"Europe/Lisbon","n":3},
"valid": true,
"description": "At 09:00, Monday through Friday",
"next": ["2026-04-24T08:00:00.000Z","2026-04-27T08:00:00.000Z","2026-04-28T08:00:00.000Z"],
"flags": {"dst_transition_ahead": false, "ambiguous": false, "notes": []},
"errors": []
}
Check remaining balance:
curl -H "x-api-key: $YOUR_KEY" \
https://cron-explainer.cron-explainer-prod.workers.dev/v1/balance
MCP
The server is listed on the official MCP registry as
io.github.IdoAzaCalls/cron-explainer with a Streamable HTTP endpoint at
POST /mcp. It exposes one tool, explain_cron. Pass your x-api-key as
an HTTP header on the MCP transport; billing is identical to the REST path.
Registry entry: https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0/servers?search=cron-explainer
Endpoints
| Method | Path | Purpose |
|---|
POST | /v1/explain | Parse + describe + next fire times (billed) |
GET | /v1/balance | Remaining balance for an x-api-key |
POST | /v1/checkout | Create a Stripe Checkout Session |
GET | /v1/schema | JSON Schema for request/response |
POST | /mcp | MCP Streamable HTTP (JSON-RPC 2.0) |
GET | /.well-known/mcp.json | Static tool manifest |
GET | /health | Liveness probe |
GET | /legal/{tos,privacy,disclaimer,notices} | Legal docs |
Limits
- Cron: 5-field POSIX/Vixie syntax (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week).
- Timezones: IANA names (e.g.
Europe/Lisbon, America/Los_Angeles). Defaults to UTC.
n clamps to [1, 100].- Best-effort accuracy. See
/legal/disclaimer for warranty terms.
- Zero PII: inputs are cron strings and IANA timezones only. Request and response bodies are never logged.
Stack
TypeScript on Cloudflare Workers. Cron parsing via
croner (MIT). English descriptions via
cronstrue (MIT). Full NOTICE
text at /legal/notices.
azariaido@gmail.com — billing issues, bug reports, custom pricing.