---
title: "Start here | exceptwhen"
description: A worked exceptwhen schedule you can read and subscribe to in about a minute, before authoring anything.
---
Start here

# See it work before you write anything.

This is a complete schedule: a regular rule, a holiday that overrides it, and the calendar both produce. Subscribe to it now, then swap in your own document.

 [Subscribe to the sample](#subscribe-title) [Create an account](/signup)

exceptwhen publishes a calendar derived from your rules, with the reason attached to every date. It is not a calendar app, not a solver, and not legal advice.

 The whole idea, on one date

## Wednesday 25 November 2026

Two rules both want this day. **thanksgiving** wins and **school_nights** does not. The holidays layer sits above base, so a holiday rule takes precedence over the regular school-night rule for the days it covers.

That is the property worth paying for. A disagreement about one date becomes a disagreement about one named rule and one recorded reading of one clause, rather than about the whole calendar.

## Two-household school week

Resolved blocks for Thanksgiving week, America/Los_Angeles. Each one names the rule and the clause that produced it.

 Regular rule

### Parent A

Nov 23, 2026, 6:00 PM to Nov 24, 2026, 8:00 AM

Rule **school_nights**, from Judgment 4(a).

School nights run overnight, so the exchange is the next morning.

Regular rule

### Parent A

Nov 24, 2026, 6:00 PM to Nov 25, 2026, 8:00 AM

Rule **school_nights**, from Judgment 4(a).

School nights run overnight, so the exchange is the next morning.

Exception

### Parent B

Nov 25, 2026, 6:00 PM to Nov 29, 2026, 6:00 PM

Rule **thanksgiving**, from Judgment 7(c).

Thanksgiving starts the evening before and runs to Sunday evening.

These blocks are a fixed sample so this page works before any schedule is published. The rules below are the real thing.

 The source

## The two rules that produced that week

This is the whole schedule. It is text, so it diffs, reviews and keeps its history the way any other document does.

```
engine version "0.1.0" zone "America/Los_Angeles" horizon_margin 7
channel custody states parent_a parent_b
layer base
layer holidays above base
rule school_nights in base
when every week on mon, tue, wed, thu
from civil that day at 18:00
until civil next day at 08:00
assign custody = parent_a
clause "Judgment 4(a)"
interpret "School nights run overnight, so the exchange is the next morning."
rule thanksgiving in holidays
when nth(4, thu) of november
from civil previous day at 18:00
until from + civil 4 days
assign custody = parent_b
clause "Judgment 7(c)"
interpret "Thanksgiving starts the evening before and runs to Sunday evening."

```

 Sample feed

## Put the sample in your calendar

This is a fixed example calendar, not a live schedule. Subscribing to it shows exactly what arrives in a calendar app and how the reason travels with each event.

 Sample feed address  Copy the https address Same address for Apple Calendar  Copy the webcal address

Both addresses point at the same calendar.

### Google Calendar

1. Open Google Calendar on a computer. The mobile apps cannot add a calendar by URL.
2. In the left sidebar, next to Other calendars, choose the plus, then From URL.
3. Paste the https:// address and choose Add calendar.

Do not use Import. Import copies these events once and they never change again.

### Apple Calendar

1. On macOS, choose File, then New Calendar Subscription.
2. On iPhone or iPad, open Settings, then Apps, then Calendar, then Accounts, then Add Account, then Other, then Add Subscribed Calendar.
3. Paste the webcal:// address. Set Auto-refresh to the shortest interval offered.

Do not open the file from a download. That adds a one-time copy instead of a subscription.

### Outlook

1. Open Outlook on the web and go to Calendar.
2. Choose Add calendar, then Subscribe from web.
3. Paste the https:// address, give it a name, and choose Import.

The button on that screen is labelled Import, which is confusing. It is the right one, but only on the Subscribe from web screen. Do not use Upload from file.

Calendar apps decide their own refresh interval and it is usually measured in hours. exceptwhen asks for one hour and cannot make a client honour it, so a subscribed calendar is not the place to learn about a same-day change.

 Then

## Swap the example for your document

Replace the two rules above with the ones in your judgment, custody agreement, or work rotation. Each rule carries the clause it came from and your reading of it, so the calendar can always be traced back to the paragraph that produced it.

 [Create an account](/signup) [How feed URLs work](/feeds)