Desktop scheduled tasks: docs say "ask Claude" can change a task's model, but update_scheduled_task MCP tool has no model parameter

Status Open
Reported on v2.1.233
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 0 comments · opened Aug 18, 2026

Docs vs. behavior mismatch

desktop-scheduled-tasks states:

"Schedule, folder, model, and enabled state are not in this file: change them through the Edit form or ask Claude."

In practice, asking Claude does not work for model (or folder). The only MCP tool exposed for this (update_scheduled_task) has no model parameter at all.

Reproduction

  1. Have any local scheduled task (created via Desktop's Routines → New routine → Local).
  2. In a Desktop session, call update_scheduled_task with taskId + model: "claude-sonnet-5" and nothing else.
  3. Tool returns:

``
Error: No updates provided for task "<id>". Supply at least one of: prompt, description, cronExpression, fireAt, enabled, notifyOnCompletion.
`
model` is silently rejected as unrecognized — not listed among the supported fields at all.

What I checked before filing

  • CLI version 2.1.233; changelog's newest entry is 2.1.234 — not a stale-install issue.
  • claude --help: no subcommand (schedule/tasks/routines) covers this either.
  • No per-task config file exists on disk beyond SKILL.md (checked several task folders under ~/.claude/scheduled-tasks/) — model/schedule/folder/enabled aren't stored there, consistent with the docs.
  • Checked the app's local Electron storage (IndexedDB, Local Storage, shared_proto_db) read-only for ~48 real task IDs — zero matches, suggesting this metadata is server-side, not local.
  • Separately: comparing real scheduled-task run transcripts before/after adding a global "model" key to settings.json, tasks with runs before the change consistently ran on claude-opus-5 regardless — suggesting each task's own (UI-only-editable) model setting takes precedence over the user-level default, which the docs don't currently state either way.

Impact: anyone with many scheduled tasks who wants to bulk-change the model (e.g. after a new model release) has no way to do it except opening the Edit form for each task by hand — the documented "or ask Claude" path doesn't exist for this field.

Expected: update_scheduled_task accepts model, matching what the docs describe. Bonus: docs could also clarify precedence between a task's own model setting and the user-level model default in settings.json.

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