Sundry Works Help · Posting on a timer

Scheduling posts to go out later

Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the computer off.

What it's for

Nine in the morning is a good time to post a painting and a bad time to be at a computer doing it. This is the answer to that: you line the post up whenever suits you, and it goes out at the time you chose, whether the computer is on, asleep, or switched off at the wall.

It works because the posting stops happening on your computer. A small thing lives at sundry.works, beside the phone copy, and that is what is awake at nine in the morning. Your computer does all the thinking - it draws the picture, takes the caption, works out where the links and hashtags are, and turns your clock time into something a server somewhere else will understand. Then it hands the finished post over. The server's only job is to send it at the right moment and be honest about what happened.

The phone can line one up too, from 1.72.0. It draws the picture and hands it over in exactly the same way - the token pasted into that browser is what tells the server it is you. And a post pressed on the phone goes down the same road: Publish there is a post timed for this minute, which is why it takes about a minute to appear.

Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook and Threads can all be put on a timer, and so can a reel to Facebook and Instagram. Pinterest and X cannot - they have nothing to post through, so those two are made here and posted by hand.

A picture is lined up from the Post tab and a reel from the Reel tab, under the finished video. They share one queue, one timer and one list.

The server is handed a Page token for Instagram and Facebook, which is what writes to both. It is never given your app secret - that is the key that could mint fresh keys out of nothing, and it stays on this computer. Which is also why the server cannot let itself back in if you disconnect it.

A caption too long for the platform is caught as you schedule it, while it is still on the screen in front of you, rather than failing quietly at nine the next morning.

Setting it up

Once, and then never again. There are three parts and they are all quick.

1. You need a token. More than one artist can share one scheduler, and the token is what tells it which of you is which, so it is made for you and sent to you rather than being something you find. If the Configuration tab says "Not set up" and you have not been sent one, ask.
2. It is one line, and it looks like eight letters and numbers, then a dot, then sixty-four more. The short piece at the front is your account. Copy the whole thing, dot and all.
3. Configuration tab, the card called "Posting on a timer". Paste the token in and press Connect. It checks the token before keeping it, so if it says Connected, it genuinely is. A small line underneath shows your account, which is the thing to quote if you ever have to ask about a post that did not go out.
4. Connecting also sends your Bluesky sign-in up, which is what lets the server post as you. You do not need to press the button for that separately.
5. Last, the timer itself: a cron job set to Once Per Minute on the web host. Only whoever runs the server can add it, and it only has to be done once for everybody. Without it the scheduler sits there and nothing goes out for anyone, so the card says so if it notices the timer has stopped.

Lining a post up

1. Post tab, as usual: open a painting, choose the format, and get the picture and caption how you want them.
2. Instead of Publish, press "Post later instead".
3. Pick a date and a time. It opens on the next sensible slot - nine, midday or six - so most of the time you are only nudging it.
4. Press Schedule. The post appears in "Waiting to go out" under the picture, and on the Calendar beside your shows.
5. Close Sundry Works. That is the whole point; nothing on this computer is needed from here on.

What to expect

The time is your own clock, and the post goes out within about a minute of it. The timer wakes up once a minute, so there is a little slack either side. Nothing can be scheduled less than a minute ahead, or more than a year.

What you send is finished, not a recipe. The picture is drawn and the caption fixed the moment you press Schedule, so editing the painting the next day cannot change what goes out - and neither can deleting it. To change a scheduled post, cancel it and line it up again.

Scheduling does not tick the painting off. The tick belongs to the post actually going out, which the app notices next time it is open - wherever you happen to be in it, and whichever painting you have open.

"Waiting to go out" says one of two things. Waiting means it is queued and the time has not come; Needs you means something is wrong, and it says what in plain words. Either can be cancelled. Once a post has gone it leaves that list altogether and turns up on the Calendar instead, which is where everything already sent lives.

Seeing what is waiting, and what has gone

Two places, because they answer two different questions.

Under the picture on the Post tab is what is still to go out, grouped by day: Today, Tomorrow, then the date. It is every painting's posts, not only the one on screen, because "what is waiting?" is a question about the week. Anything needing attention sits above the days, since it is not waiting for a day, it is waiting for you.

The Calendar is the fuller view. Posts waiting to go out sit beside your shows and deadlines on the day they are due, and the button at the foot opens everything that has already gone. That half is kept for good - it is written onto each painting rather than left with the scheduler, so it does not fade after a week. Click any post to open its painting.

A post that failed and is still sitting there stays in Coming up however late it is. It has not happened, so it is not history, and it sorts to the top where you will see it.

Not posting the same painting twice

The risk is not forgetting what is queued. It is pressing Publish on a painting that already has a post lined up - because pressing Publish does not call that one off, so the painting goes out twice and the second time is a surprise.

So the Post tab says it where the mistake would be made. When the painting on screen already has a post waiting for that place, a line above the caption says so and names the time, and the "are you sure" box says it again. A second, quieter line tells you when that painting last went to that place, and how many times if it is more than one.

Both are about that place only. A painting that went to Facebook last week has not been to Instagram, and a warning that could not tell them apart would soon be one you stopped reading.

Is it safe?

Your Bluesky app password never leaves this computer. Instead, Sundry Works signs in to Bluesky a second time, separately, and sends only that sign-in up to the server. Somebody who got hold of the server could post as you; they could not change your password, read anything, or lock you out. Revoking that app password in Bluesky cuts off both at once.

That second sign-in expires after a while, and the scheduler renews it itself every time it posts - it has always done that, and it does not depend on you opening anything anywhere. "Send my connections up" on the Configuration tab is the manual version, for after you reconnect Bluesky on the computer.

The pictures waiting to be posted sit on the web host under names nobody could guess, and each one is deleted the moment its post goes out. They are pictures you are about to publish anyway. A waiting reel sits in the same place under the same rules; Facebook and Instagram both fetch it from there themselves rather than being sent it.

If more than one artist uses the same scheduler, none of you can see any part of another's. Your token opens your own folder and there is nowhere in it to name somebody else's, so your queue, your sign-ins and your pictures are yours alone. The one thing shared is the timer that wakes the whole thing up once a minute, and it takes each of you in turn so a busy week for one person cannot hold up anybody else's nine o'clock.

When something goes wrong

Most failures are a moment of bad network and mend themselves, so it tries again a few times with growing gaps before saying anything. Only when it truly gives up does it speak, and then it does so twice: an email, and a Needs you row in the list.

1. "The scheduler has no Bluesky sign-in", or the same about Threads - open the Configuration tab and press Send my connections up.
2. "The timer is not running" - the once-a-minute job on the web host has stopped or was never added. Nothing goes out for anybody until it is back. If you run the server it tells you the command to put in cPanel; if you do not, it says to get in touch, because there is genuinely nothing to do at your end.
3. "Not set up" when you know it was - the token was cleared, or a new one was made for you. Paste the new one in. Losing a token does not cost you your queue.
4. If you still have a device that is connected, your token is on it. Configuration, "Posting on a timer" on the computer or "Sundry Works service" in a browser, then "Show my token". That is the way to set up a new phone, and the way back if you have lost the copy that was sent to you. It cannot be read back off the server any more - the server keeps only enough to check a token, not the token itself - so if every device has lost it, a new one has to be issued. Open app.sundry.works in a browser and press "I have lost my token": a link goes to the address you subscribed with, and opening it issues the new token and shows it to you. The old one stops working at that moment, so every device needs the new one.
5. "This subscription needs attention before the catalogue can be reached" - the payment behind your account has lapsed or failed. Nothing in your catalogue or your queue is lost. In a browser, that screen has "Manage or cancel subscription" on it: it opens Stripe's own page for your subscription, where a new card can go on. The same button is on the Configuration tab. Once the payment is good the same token works again. On the computer there is no way through to Stripe, so write to [email protected] and it will be put right.
6. "That does not look like a scheduler token" - it is the wrong shape. The likeliest cause is only half of it being copied. It needs the short piece, the dot, and the sixty-four characters after it, all on one line.
7. A post that says Needs you can be cancelled like any other. Nothing was sent, so lining it up again is safe.
8. "There is already a reel waiting" - a reel takes a great deal more room on the server than a picture, so only one can be queued at a time. Wait for it, or cancel it from the Post tab.

The rest of the Help

Start here

• Getting started with Sundry Works - What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.
• Using Sundry Works on your phone - Setting up the phone, whether or not there is a computer as well.

Your catalogue

• What's due and what's unfinished - The first tab: what's coming up, what's still to do, what's unfinished.
• Cataloguing your paintings - Your catalog - add paintings and open the one you're working on.
• Reviewing everything one painting makes - Everything the open painting makes, on one page, with the one decision each needs.
• How to price a painting consistently - Work out a consistent price for the open painting.
• Tracking what sold and who bought it - What sold, who took it home, and what it brought in.
• Printing show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's labels, or a portfolio to send.

Making things from a painting

• Writing a story for a painting - Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.
• Making a printed card for a painting - Lay out the printed card for the painting.
• How to make a certificate of authenticity - A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.
• Web-sized copies of a painting's photo - Export web-sized copies of the painting's photo.
• Branded posts of your paintings - Branded static posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
• Making a reel of a painting - Build the vertical reel frame and video for social media.
• Designing an artist's business card - The card you hand out, laid out down to the last millimetre.

Running the business

• Setting up your artist brand - Set up once: your identity, brand assets, colours, and AI key.
• An address book for galleries and collectors - A simple address book for galleries, collectors, suppliers, and more.
• Checklists for shows and studio jobs - Reusable checklists for shows, errands, and anything you repeat.
• A calendar for shows and deadlines - Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.
• All your post comments in one list - What people said on your posts, from every platform, in one list.

Connections and setup

• Posting to Instagram and Facebook - Connect your accounts so you can post directly from Sundry Works.
• Posting your paintings to Threads - A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
• Posting your paintings to Bluesky - The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.
• Scheduling posts to go out later - Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the computer off.
• Configuring Sundry Works - Where everything plugs in: your social accounts, your website, your AI service, and where the catalogue lives.