diff --git a/engine/world.go b/engine/world.go
index cadbe96c..2bb97bbc 100644
--- a/engine/world.go
+++ b/engine/world.go
@@ -44,8 +44,6 @@ type World interface { // TODO: is there a better name for this interface?
 
 	ResWorld
 
-	Scheduler(namespace string, opts ...scheduler.Option) (*scheduler.Result, error)
-
 	// URI returns the current FS URI.
 	// TODO: Can we improve this API or deprecate it entirely?
 	URI() string
@@ -84,6 +82,13 @@ type ResWorld interface {
 	ResCollect(ctx context.Context, hostnameFilter, kindFilter []string) ([]Res, error)
 }
 
+// SchedulerWorld is an interface that has to do with distributed scheduling.
+// XXX: This should be abstracted to remove the etcd specific types if possible.
+type SchedulerWorld interface {
+	// Scheduler runs a distributed scheduler.
+	Scheduler(namespace string, opts ...scheduler.Option) (*scheduler.Result, error)
+}
+
 // EtcdWorld is a world interface that should be implemented if the world
 // backend is implementing etcd, and if it supports dynamically resizing things.
 // TODO: In theory we could generalize this to support other backends, but lets
diff --git a/lang/core/world/schedule.go b/lang/core/world/schedule.go
index 0bb963a5..56ec46ee 100644
--- a/lang/core/world/schedule.go
+++ b/lang/core/world/schedule.go
@@ -46,7 +46,8 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"sort"
 
-	"github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/etcd/scheduler" // TODO: is it okay to import this without abstraction?
+	"github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/engine"
+	"github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/etcd/scheduler" // XXX: abstract this if possible
 	"github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/lang/funcs"
 	"github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/lang/interfaces"
 	"github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/lang/types"
@@ -90,6 +91,8 @@ type ScheduleFunc struct {
 
 	args []types.Value
 
+	world engine.SchedulerWorld
+
 	namespace string
 	scheduler *scheduler.Result
 
@@ -278,6 +281,13 @@ func (obj *ScheduleFunc) Info() *interfaces.Info {
 // Init runs some startup code for this function.
 func (obj *ScheduleFunc) Init(init *interfaces.Init) error {
 	obj.init = init
+
+	world, ok := obj.init.World.(engine.SchedulerWorld)
+	if !ok {
+		return fmt.Errorf("world backend does not support the SchedulerWorld interface")
+	}
+	obj.world = world
+
 	obj.watchChan = make(chan *schedulerResult)
 	//obj.init.Debug = true // use this for local debugging
 	return nil
@@ -378,7 +388,7 @@ func (obj *ScheduleFunc) Stream(ctx context.Context) error {
 					obj.init.Logf("starting scheduler...")
 				}
 				var err error
-				obj.scheduler, err = obj.init.World.Scheduler(obj.namespace, schedulerOpts...)
+				obj.scheduler, err = obj.world.Scheduler(obj.namespace, schedulerOpts...)
 				if err != nil {
 					return errwrap.Wrapf(err, "can't create scheduler")
 				}