Weekly reports written by a disposable AI agent
A scheduled agent reads last week's numbers from your analytics or finance API and writes a short report with the change from the week before. Ephemeral runs the saved workflow on your cron schedule in a fresh microVM, reads the numbers through a read-only connection whose credentials it holds, reserves the budget before the run starts and posts the report to your callback.
A weekly report took 10 seconds and cost $0.007282, measured on October 7, 2026 with openai/gpt-6-luna (2 model calls, 2,486 tokens).
What the run is allowed
Everything a run can touch is listed in its request. This is the request of the sample Automate a weekly KPI report with AI.
| Files | None |
|---|---|
| Connections | analytics: GET only; credentials stay outside the machine |
| Web access | Off |
| Shell | Off |
| Budget | $0.025 per run, reserved before it starts |
| Timeout | 60 seconds |
How to run it
Start a run with the API or the CLI, or put it on a schedule with a cron expression and a time zone. The result arrives by signed callback or when you read the run.
POST /v1/runs
{
"workflow": "weekly-report",
"input": {
"period": "last_week"
},
"max_cost_micros": 25000
}Samples
Each sample is a complete request you can read, replay and copy.
- Automate a weekly KPI report with AIEvery Monday a scheduled agent reads last week's signups, active users, revenue and churn and writes a short report with week-over-week change.
- Explain why revenue changed this week with AIAn agent pulls two weeks of metrics, calculates the changes with real commands and explains the likely drivers, with caveats.
- Check expense reports against company policy with AIAn agent reads a policy and a list of expenses and flags each violation with the clause it breaks.
- Extract invoice data to JSON with an LLM, with zero data retentionAn agent turns invoice text into structured JSON and checks that the totals add up. The run keeps nothing afterwards.
Recipe
Recipe: write a weekly report walks through the same job step by step.
Related terms
- Credential broker: Ephemeral holds a connection's credentials and adds them to each request, so the token never enters the machine.
- Run budget: The most a run may spend, reserved up front and enforced while it runs.
- Zero data retention: A run mode in which providers keep nothing and the run's content is not stored.
Questions
Can the agent invent numbers?
The samples tell it to use only what the API returns and to say so when a call fails instead of estimating. The full timeline of every call is kept with the run so you can check each figure.
Can I keep financial documents out of storage?
Yes. Zero data retention mode stores no run content and is priced as a surcharge on the run. The invoice sample uses it because invoices carry names and bank details.
Which time zone does a schedule use?
The one you set on the schedule. The weekly report sample runs at 09:00 on Mondays in Asia/Tokyo.
Prices are on the pricing page.