@Marvin why would a prefect worker fail to start when run from cron?

A common issue when running a Prefect worker from a cron job is related to environment variables. Cron jobs often run with a minimal environment, which might lack the necessary environment variables and paths required for Prefect. Here are a few common solutions: 1. Set environment variables explicitly in your cron job: Ensure that all required environment variables (e.g.,

PREFECT_API_URL

,

PREFECT_API_KEY

) are set in the cron job. Example:

* * * * * /bin/bash -c 'export PREFECT_API_URL="your_prefect_api_url"; export PREFECT_API_KEY="your_api_key"; prefect worker start -q default'

2. Use absolute paths: Cron jobs may not have the same PATH variable as your user. It’s often safer to use absolute paths to ensure that the cron job can locate the

prefect

command. Example:

* * * * * /usr/local/bin/prefect worker start -q default

3. Source your profile: If you have environment variables defined in your shell profile (like

.bash_profile

,

.bashrc

, or

.profile

), make sure to source it in your cron job. Example:

* * * * * /bin/bash -lc 'prefect worker start -q default'

If none of these solutions resolve the issue, please provide more details about the error message, and I'll help you troubleshoot further. For more information, you can refer to the Prefect documentation on Using Workers and Work Pools.