AI and Shabbos
Can an AI agent keep working while a shliach keeps Shabbos? What the groups discussed in 2026, what the Chabad.org article does and does not say, and how members build Shabbos holds into their agents. Not a psak: ask your rav.
On this page
The question keeps coming back as agents get more capable: if an AI agent works on its own, may it keep working over Shabbos and Yom Tov? This page describes what was discussed and what members built. It is not a halachic ruling. Every case here depends on details, and the person to ask is your rav.
A separate question, whether AI gets Torah content right, is on AI and Torah Accuracy.
Where the question comes from
The cases members raised in 2026:
- A self-hosted agent (GabAI, NanoClaw) running a long task that started Friday afternoon.
- Scheduled reminders, emails or WhatsApp messages that would go out to the community on Shabbos.
- An agent answering people who message the Chabad House on Shabbos.
- Donations, registrations or payments the agent processes.
- Hosted agents like Muse that act on their own clock (one sent minyan texts at 2 a.m. without asking).
- Claude Cowork or Codex tasks that keep running, or spawn more tasks, after candle lighting.
The Chabad.org article
A member shared Can I Let My AI Agent Run on Shabbat? by Chabad.org's Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin in April 2026. In brief, it reviews the classic sources on processes set up before Shabbos (the water mill), the concern that noisy or visible activity detracts from the honor of Shabbos, how contemporary poskim treat timers, appliances and online stores, and the extra concern when automation does business or work. On AI agents it does not reach a ruling. It treats the question as open and tells the reader to consult a competent rav.
An earlier version of this page summarized the article as approving some scenarios and forbidding others. The article does not say that, and that table has been removed.
What members said
From the shluchim and builders groups. These are opinions shared in a chat, not psak.
- April 2026. A member who is a rav wrote that shvisas keilim (resting one's utensils) is not by itself an issue for a computer, but to be careful about business, purchases and sales, and about maris ayin, for example emails going out. Another pointed out that back-end processes running over Shabbos for Jewish-owned businesses are nothing new; the harder cases are outputs that other people see.
- July 2026. A builder asked, half joking, whether there is a heter to start a long agent task to run over Shabbos for tzorchei tzibur. Others raised shvisas keilim, and one answered that the agent "has the choice to get it all done before Shabbos."
- August 2026. A shliach's group agent was asked for practical zmanim rules and gave generic, partly questionable answers. Members cautioned not to copy an agent's halachic or zmanim answers without checking with a rav and a reliable calendar.
- Agents themselves defer when asked. In April 2026 members tested whether an agent would "choose" its owner over HaShem; it answered that halachic and spiritual judgment calls go back to the human ("I'm not a posek").
The Bina Melachutis discussion asked whether, if AI is bina without chochma or neshama, the categories that apply to a person's shliach apply to it at all. It stayed open.
How members build Shabbos into their agents
Whatever your rav says about the halacha, most members want their agent to stop sending on Shabbos and Yom Tov. What they built in 2026, as reported in the GabAI group:
- A Shabbos mode. GabAI has a Shabbos mode and Shabbos-aware scheduling. The admin's advice: ask your host to add the skill and explain how it works, so you can tune it to your practice.
- Gates on every outbound message. One shliach's agents check for Shabbos and Yom Tov before anything is sent, and hold it until after. His host messages the owners about six hours before candle lighting from a schedule computed in advance.
- Zmanim computed on the server. GabAI calculates the day's zmanim offline with the open-source KosherZmanim library (GitHub), from your location and the opinions you choose. Others use the Hebcal API. A member who compared Hebcal's settings with chabad.org's times for his city found them very close for most zmanim, with special cases (Montreal's custom for motzei Shabbos was one). Check your own city against your usual calendar before you trust it.
- "After Shabbos" as a real time. Members tell their agents to bring things back "after Shabbos" and have the reminder fire at a set time on motzei Shabbos.
- Nothing customer-facing on Shabbos. The common practice is that no AI-written email, text or social post is scheduled to go out on Shabbos.
For any zmanim an agent sends to the community, keep a person checking the times before they go out. See the guide How do I get reliable local zmanim from an AI assistant? and Zmanim and Hebrew Dates.
Hosted agents (Muse, Instinct, Tab, dots) have no idea it is Shabbos unless you tell them, and members found they do not reliably follow time rules. If you use one, turn off anything that sends on its own before Shabbos, and ask your rav whether leaving it connected is a concern.
Questions to bring to your rav
- May I start a long agent task before Shabbos that will still be running on Shabbos? Does it matter if nothing goes out to anyone?
- May my agent answer people who message the Chabad House on Shabbos, if it only says when we will reply?
- What about donations or registrations that come in through an automated form or agent on Shabbos?
- Are scheduled emails or posts queued before Shabbos different from an agent deciding on its own to send something?
- If the agent sends me notifications on Shabbos that I will not read until motzei Shabbos, is that a problem?