trigger.dev README

Build and deploy fully‑managed AI agents and workflows

About Trigger.dev

Trigger.dev is the open-source platform for building AI workflows in TypeScript. Long-running tasks with retries, queues, observability, and elastic scaling.

The platform designed for building AI agents

Build AI agents using all the frameworks, services and LLMs you're used to, deploy them to Trigger.dev and get durable, long-running tasks with retries, queues, observability, and elastic scaling out of the box.

Long-running without timeouts: Execute your tasks with absolutely no timeouts, unlike AWS Lambda, Vercel, and other serverless platforms.
Durability, retries & queues: Build rock solid agents and AI applications using our durable tasks, retries, queues and idempotency.
True runtime freedom: Customize your deployed tasks with system packages – run browsers, Python scripts, FFmpeg and more.
Human-in-the-loop: Programmatically pause your tasks until a human can approve, reject or give feedback.
Realtime apps & streaming: Move your background jobs to the foreground by subscribing to runs or streaming AI responses to your app.
Observability & monitoring: Each run has full tracing and logs. Configure error alerts to catch bugs fast.

Key features

JavaScript and TypeScript SDK - Build background tasks using familiar programming models
Long-running tasks - Handle resource-heavy tasks without timeouts
Durable cron schedules - Create and attach recurring schedules of up to a year
Trigger.dev Realtime - Trigger, subscribe to, and get real-time updates for runs, with LLM streaming support
Build extensions - Hook directly into the build system and customize the build process. Run Python scripts, FFmpeg, browsers, and more.
React hooks - Interact with the Trigger.dev API on your frontend using our React hooks package
Batch triggering - Use batchTrigger() to initiate multiple runs of a task with custom payloads and options
Structured inputs / outputs - Define precise data schemas for your tasks with runtime payload validation
Waits - Add waits to your tasks to pause execution for a specified duration
Preview branches - Create isolated environments for testing and development. Integrates with Vercel and git workflows
Waitpoints - Add human-in-the-loop judgment at critical decision points without disrupting workflow
Concurrency & queues - Set concurrency rules to manage how multiple tasks execute
Multiple environments - Support for DEV, PREVIEW, STAGING, and PROD environments
No infrastructure to manage - Auto-scaling infrastructure that eliminates timeouts and server management
Automatic retries - If your task encounters an uncaught error, we automatically attempt to run it again
Checkpointing - Tasks are inherently durable, thanks to our checkpointing feature
Versioning - Atomic versioning allows you to deploy new versions without affecting running tasks
Machines - Configure the number of vCPUs and GBs of RAM you want the task to use
Observability & monitoring - Monitor every aspect of your tasks' performance with comprehensive logging and visualization tools
Logging & tracing - Comprehensive logging and tracing for all your tasks
Tags - Attach up to ten tags to each run, allowing you to filter via the dashboard, realtime, and the SDK
Run metadata - Attach metadata to runs which updates as the run progresses and is available to use in your frontend for live updates
Bulk actions - Perform actions on multiple runs simultaneously, including replaying and cancelling
Real-time alerts - Choose your preferred notification method for run failures and deployments

Write tasks in your codebase

Create tasks where they belong: in your codebase. Version control, localhost, test and review like you're already used to.

import { task } from "@trigger.dev/sdk";

//1. You need to export each task
export const helloWorld = task({
  //2. Use a unique id for each task
  id: "hello-world",
  //3. The run function is the main function of the task
  run: async (payload: { message: string }) => {
    //4. You can write code that runs for a long time here, there are no timeouts
    console.log(payload.message);
  },
});

Deployment

Use our SDK to write tasks in your codebase. There's no infrastructure to manage, your tasks automatically scale and connect to our cloud. Or you can always self-host.

Environments

We support Development, Staging, Preview, and Production environments, allowing you to test your tasks before deploying them to production.

Full visibility of every job run

View every task in every run so you can tell exactly what happened. We provide a full trace view of every task run so you can see what happened at every step.

Trace view image

Getting started

The quickest way to get started is to create an account and project in our web app, and follow the instructions in the onboarding. Build and deploy your first task in minutes.

Useful links:

Quick start - get up and running in minutes
How it works - understand how Trigger.dev works under the hood
Guides and examples - walk-through guides and code examples for popular frameworks and use cases

Self-hosting

If you prefer to self-host Trigger.dev, you can follow our self-hosting guides:

Docker self-hosting guide - use Docker Compose to spin up a Trigger.dev instance
Kubernetes self-hosting guide - use our official Helm chart to deploy Trigger.dev to your Kubernetes cluster

Support and community

We have a large active community in our official Discord server for support, including a dedicated channel for self-hosting.

Development

To setup and develop locally or contribute to the open source project, follow our development guide.

Meet the Amazing People Behind This Project:

16.6K ·GitHub

Trigger.dev

What is this?

Trigger.dev is an open-source platform for building and deploying durable AI agents and workflows written in TypeScript, giving you long-running tasks with retries, queues, observability and elastic scaling.

Is this a hosted service or a code library I add to my project?

It is both: you write tasks in your codebase using the Trigger.dev JavaScript/TypeScript SDK, then deploy them to Trigger.dev's managed cloud (no infrastructure to manage) or to your own self-hosted instance.

How do I build and deploy my first task?

Create an account and project in the Trigger.dev web app and follow the onboarding flow; you can have your first task built and deployed within minutes.

Can I self-host it instead of using the cloud service?

Yes — Trigger.dev provides a Docker Compose self-hosting guide and an official Helm chart for deploying to a Kubernetes cluster if you don't want to use the managed cloud.

Can I write tasks in languages other than JavaScript/TypeScript?

Tasks are written with the JS/TS SDK, but build extensions let you hook into the build process to run Python scripts, FFmpeg, browsers and other system packages inside a task.

Does it only work with serverless platforms like Vercel or AWS Lambda?

No — a key selling point is that Trigger.dev tasks have no timeouts at all, unlike AWS Lambda, Vercel and other serverless platforms, so long-running AI agent jobs can run to completion.

What actually makes a task 'durable' instead of just a regular background job?

Checkpointing makes tasks inherently durable, and failed tasks are automatically retried on uncaught errors, so work survives crashes and transient failures.

Can a human intervene in the middle of an automated workflow?

Yes, waitpoints let you pause a task so a human can approve, reject or give feedback before the workflow continues.

Can I stream AI responses to my app's frontend in real time?

Yes, Trigger.dev Realtime lets you subscribe to runs and stream LLM responses live, with a companion React hooks package for frontend integration.

How do I control concurrency and run multiple environments safely?

You can set concurrency rules and queues per task, and the platform supports separate DEV, PREVIEW, STAGING and PROD environments so testing never collides with production runs.

What are similar projects?

evenfire, temporal, sim, brigade, dapr, agno, mission-control, kestra

Which topics is it in?

durable-execution, background-jobs, workflows, scheduler, serverless, workflow-automation, orchestration, observability, nextjs, kubernetes, sdk, monitoring

Creator: triggerdotdev
Size: 196 MB
Stars: 16.6K
Updated: CommitOct 16 Releasev4.7.4Oct 14
Age: 3y
Commits · 90 Days