Cron hourly on weekdays: the expression, explained, in Docker

The cron expression for “hourly on weekdays” is 0 * * * 1-5. This page shows what each field does, the next five times it will fire, the mistake most people make with it, and a working Docker example you can paste.

The expression

0 * * * 1-5
FieldValueMeaning
minute0exactly 0
hour*every hour
day of month*every day of month
month*every month
day of week1-5Monday to Friday

Next five runs (UTC, from now)

  1. 2026-09-18 00:00 UTC
  2. 2026-09-18 01:00 UTC
  3. 2026-09-18 02:00 UTC
  4. 2026-09-18 03:00 UTC
  5. 2026-09-18 04:00 UTC

Mistakes people make with this schedule

  • Expecting this to stop at midnight on Friday. Day-of-week is evaluated in the scheduler timezone, so a UTC server keeps running into your Saturday morning.
  • Assuming the server clock is your clock. Cron runs in the machine’s timezone unless the runtime says otherwise; the examples here are UTC.
  • No lock around a job that might overlap itself, and no alert when it silently stops. That second one is what Supercrontab is for.

Run it in your stack

Linux crontabLaravelWordPressNext.js / VercelNode.jsPythonDockerGitHub Actions
# Dockerfile
RUN apk add --no-cache curl
RUN echo '0 * * * 1-5 curl -fsS http://app:3000/cron/run' > /etc/crontabs/root
CMD ["crond", "-f", "-l", "2"]

Or skip the sidecar: expose the route and let Supercrontab call it.

Questions

Does 0 * * * 1-5 run in my local time?

Only if the scheduler is configured for it. crontab uses the system timezone; Vercel and GitHub Actions always use UTC; Laravel and node-cron take a timezone option. In Supercrontab the timezone is a field on the job.

What if the previous run is still going?

Classic cron starts the next run anyway. Add a lock (flock on Linux, withoutOverlapping() in Laravel) or let Supercrontab skip the tick while the previous request is open.

Is there a shorter way to write this?

No. The five-field form is the shortest portable version.