fix: automation schedules run in the rule's resolved timezone, not UTC

The automation create/update help text and the automation skill card
claimed schedules are always stored and evaluated in UTC, and told
callers to convert local wall-clock times to UTC before passing them
to --at or --cron-expr.

The API resolves a rule's timezone from the caller's member timezone,
then the account timezone, falling back to UTC only when neither is
set. Since the curated create/update commands never send a timezone,
following the old advice and pre-converting to UTC shifts the schedule
by the account's UTC offset instead of producing the intended
wall-clock time.

Rewrite the help text and skill card prose to say: pass the local time
directly, and use the safari automation-rule-create --timezone flag to
pin a specific timezone when the caller's default isn't wanted (create
only; update cannot change a rule's timezone).

Author: ysyneu

internal/cli/automation.go

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ import (
 )
 
 const automationHTTPPostOnlyCron = "0 0 * * *"
-const automationUTCNote = "Convert local wall-clock requests to UTC before passing --at or --cron-expr."
+const automationTimezoneNote = "The rule's timezone defaults to the caller's member timezone, then the account timezone; pass the user's local wall-clock time here, do not convert it to UTC."
 
 func newAutomationCmd() *cobra.Command {
 	cmd := newGroupCmd("automation", "Manage AI SRE Automations")
@@ -60,9 +60,11 @@ By default the rule is enabled. Use --disabled only when the user explicitly
 asks to create it disabled. team_id=0 means personal scope; --team-id >0 creates
 the rule under that team. The scope is immutable after creation.
 
-	Schedule helpers build a 5-field UTC cron expression. --at and --cron-expr are
-	interpreted in UTC, not the caller's local timezone. Convert local wall-clock
-	requests to UTC before passing --at or --cron-expr.
+	Schedule helpers build a 5-field cron expression evaluated in the rule's
+	timezone, which defaults to the caller's member timezone, then the account
+	timezone. Pass the user's local wall-clock time to --at or --cron-expr;
+	do not convert it to UTC first. This command has no --timezone flag; use
+	safari automation-rule-create --timezone to pin a different one.
 
 	For HTTP POST-only rules, pass --http-post-trigger without a schedule; the CLI
 	sends a valid placeholder cron and disables the schedule trigger.`, "Automations", "RuleWriteCreate"),
@@ -111,10 +113,10 @@ the rule under that team. The scope is immutable after creation.
 
 	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&name, "name", "", "Automation name")
 	cmd.Flags().Int64Var(&teamID, "team-id", 0, "Scope team ID; 0 means personal scope")
-	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&schedule, "schedule", "", "UTC schedule helper: hourly, daily, weekly, or cron")
-	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&at, "at", "", "UTC time in HH:MM; for hourly schedules, only the minute is used. "+automationUTCNote)
+	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&schedule, "schedule", "", "Schedule helper: hourly, daily, weekly, or cron")
+	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&at, "at", "", "Local time in HH:MM (rule's timezone); for hourly schedules, only the minute is used. "+automationTimezoneNote)
 	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&weekday, "weekday", "", "Weekday for weekly schedules: sun, mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat, or 0-7")
-	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&cronExpr, "cron-expr", "", "Exact 5-field UTC cron expression; overrides --schedule helpers. "+automationUTCNote)
+	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&cronExpr, "cron-expr", "", "Exact 5-field cron expression in the rule's timezone; overrides --schedule helpers. "+automationTimezoneNote)
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&disabled, "disabled", false, "Create the Automation disabled")
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&scheduleEnabled, "schedule-enabled", true, "Whether the schedule trigger is enabled")
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&httpPostTrigger, "http-post-trigger", false, "Create and enable an HTTP POST trigger")
@@ -221,9 +223,11 @@ func newAutomationUpdateCmd() *cobra.Command {
 	The personal/team scope is intentionally not exposed here. Scope is immutable
 	after creation; create a new Automation if the target person/team scope needs to change.
 
-	Schedule helpers build a 5-field UTC cron expression. --at and --cron-expr are
-	interpreted in UTC, not the caller's local timezone. Convert local wall-clock
-	requests to UTC before passing --at or --cron-expr.`, "Automations", "RuleWriteUpdate"),
+	Schedule helpers build a 5-field cron expression evaluated in the rule's
+	timezone, set at creation from the caller's member timezone, then the account
+	timezone. Pass the user's local wall-clock time to --at or --cron-expr;
+	do not convert it to UTC first. This command has no --timezone flag; the
+	rule's timezone cannot be changed after creation.`, "Automations", "RuleWriteUpdate"),
 		Example: `  flashduty automation update auto_123 --name "Daily brief v2" --cron-expr "15 1 * * *"
   flashduty automation update auto_123 --disable
   flashduty automation update auto_123 --enable-http-post-trigger --rotate-http-post-token`,
@@ -315,10 +319,10 @@ func newAutomationUpdateCmd() *cobra.Command {
 	}
 
 	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&name, "name", "", "New Automation name")
-	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&schedule, "schedule", "", "UTC schedule helper: hourly, daily, weekly, or cron")
-	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&at, "at", "", "UTC time in HH:MM; for hourly schedules, only the minute is used. "+automationUTCNote)
+	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&schedule, "schedule", "", "Schedule helper: hourly, daily, weekly, or cron")
+	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&at, "at", "", "Local time in HH:MM (rule's timezone); for hourly schedules, only the minute is used. "+automationTimezoneNote)
 	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&weekday, "weekday", "", "Weekday for weekly schedules: sun, mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat, or 0-7")
-	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&cronExpr, "cron-expr", "", "Exact 5-field UTC cron expression; overrides --schedule helpers. "+automationUTCNote)
+	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&cronExpr, "cron-expr", "", "Exact 5-field cron expression in the rule's timezone; overrides --schedule helpers. "+automationTimezoneNote)
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&enableRule, "enable", false, "Enable the Automation")
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&disableRule, "disable", false, "Disable the Automation")
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&enableSchedule, "enable-schedule", false, "Enable the schedule trigger")

internal/cli/automation_test.go

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ func TestAutomationCreateDailyDefaultsEnabled(t *testing.T) {
 	assertBody(t, stub.lastBody, "prompt", "Summarize yesterday's incidents")
 }
 
-func TestAutomationScheduleHelpDocumentsUTC(t *testing.T) {
+func TestAutomationScheduleHelpDocumentsTimezone(t *testing.T) {
 	saveAndResetGlobals(t)
 
 	for _, args := range [][]string{
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@ func TestAutomationScheduleHelpDocumentsUTC(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Fatalf("%v unexpected error: %v", args, err)
 		}
 		for _, want := range []string{
-			"UTC",
-			"Convert local wall-clock requests to UTC before passing --at or --cron-expr.",
+			"do not convert it to UTC",
+			automationTimezoneNote,
 		} {
 			if !strings.Contains(out, want) {
 				t.Fatalf("%v help missing %q\n%s", args, want, out)

skills/flashduty/reference/automation.md

@@ -29,14 +29,14 @@ Prereq: `SKILL.md` read. Automations create AI SRE sessions on a schedule or thr
 ## Scheduling
 
 - Default create behavior: enabled immediately. Use `--disabled` only if the user asks for a disabled Automation.
-- No timezone flag is exposed by the current API. Automation schedules are stored and sent as UTC cron.
-- If the user asks for a local wall-clock schedule, first identify the intended timezone from the session context, runner `date`, or the user's wording. Convert that local time to UTC before calling the CLI. If the timezone is unclear, ask before creating or updating the schedule.
-- Helper schedules:
-  - `--schedule hourly --at 00:15` -> minute 15 of every UTC hour.
-  - `--schedule daily --at 01:30` -> every day at 01:30 UTC.
-  - `--schedule weekly --weekday mon --at 02:00` -> every Monday at 02:00 UTC.
-- For exact minute-level control, use `--cron-expr '<minute> <hour> <day> <month> <weekday>'` in UTC.
-- Example: Asia/Shanghai 11:00 is UTC 03:00, so use `--schedule daily --at 03:00` or `--cron-expr "0 3 * * *"`.
+- `create`/`update` expose no `--timezone` flag. The cron expression runs in the rule's timezone, which the server resolves from the caller's member timezone, then the account timezone, falling back to UTC only when neither is set.
+- Pass the user's local wall-clock time directly to `--at` or `--cron-expr` — do not convert it to UTC first. The rule already runs in the caller's own resolved timezone, so a manual UTC conversion shifts the schedule by the account's UTC offset.
+- Helper schedules (times are in the rule's resolved timezone, not UTC):
+  - `--schedule hourly --at 00:15` -> minute 15 of every hour.
+  - `--schedule daily --at 01:30` -> every day at 01:30.
+  - `--schedule weekly --weekday mon --at 02:00` -> every Monday at 02:00.
+- For exact minute-level control, use `--cron-expr '<minute> <hour> <day> <month> <weekday>'` in that same local time.
+- To pin a rule to a specific timezone (e.g. UTC) regardless of the caller's default, use `safari automation-rule-create --timezone <IANA tz>` instead — the curated `create`/`update` commands cannot set it, and `update` cannot change it after creation.
 - HTTP POST-only rule: pass `--http-post-trigger` without schedule flags. The CLI sends a placeholder cron and disables the schedule trigger.
 
 ## Hot flow - create from chat