Cron Expression for the First Monday of Every Month
Run a cron job on the first Monday of each month using 0 0 1-7 * 1. This works because the first Monday always falls between the 1st and 7th.
Expression
0 0 1-7 * 1 At 00:00 on Monday if the day is between the 1st and 7th
Use Cases
- • Scheduling monthly team meetings or standups
- • Running monthly sprint planning reminders
- • Generating first-Monday reports
- • Triggering monthly release processes
Code Examples
Crontab
# At 00:00 on Monday if the day is between the 1st and 7th
0 0 1-7 * 1 /path/to/your/script.shGitHub Actions
name: Scheduled Job
on:
schedule:
- cron: '0 0 1-7 * 1'
jobs:
run:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- run: echo "Running First Monday of Every Month"systemd Timer
[Unit]
Description=First Monday of Every Month timer
[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* *:*:00
Persistent=true
[Install]
WantedBy=timers.targetnode-cron (Node.js)
import cron from 'node-cron'
// At 00:00 on Monday if the day is between the 1st and 7th
cron.schedule('0 0 1-7 * 1', () => {
console.log('Running First Monday of Every Month')
})Spring (@Scheduled, Java)
// At 00:00 on Monday if the day is between the 1st and 7th
@Scheduled(cron = "0 0 0 1-7 * 1")
public void run() {
// your task
}Spring cron has 6 fields (a leading seconds field), so a 0 is prepended to the standard 5-field expression.
Tips
- ✓ In standard cron, day-of-month and day-of-week are ORed, not ANDed
- ✓ This expression may run on days 1-7 AND every Monday depending on implementation
- ✓ For strict first-Monday, use a wrapper script: check if day <= 7 and weekday is Monday
- ✓ Test in your specific environment to verify behavior
Frequently Asked Questions
Does 0 0 1-7 * 1 run only on the first Monday?
It depends on the cron implementation. In standard Vixie cron, day-of-month and day-of-week are ORed, meaning it runs on days 1-7 AND on every Monday. For strict first-Monday behavior, add a script check: [ "$(date +\%u)" = "1" ] && [ "$(date +\%d)" -le 7 ].
Is there a simpler way to schedule the first Monday?
Some scheduling systems like AWS EventBridge and Quartz support first weekday syntax (e.g., 1#1 for first Monday). In standard cron, you need the wrapper script approach.