Introduction

OpenQueue is a batteries-included background job framework for TypeScript, built on BullMQ and Redis. You define tasks as plain functions with a Zod schema; OpenQueue handles queues, workers, validation, retries, scheduling, flows, and observability — and ships a real dashboard (Workbench) inside your worker.

import { task } from '@openqueue/sdk';
import { z } from 'zod';

export const sendWelcome = task({
  id: 'send-welcome',
  schema: z.object({ email: z.string().email() }),
  run: async (payload, ctx) => {
    ctx.logger.info('sending welcome email', { email: payload.email });
    return { ok: true };
  },
});

// anywhere in your app
await sendWelcome.trigger({ email: 'alex@example.com' });

Why OpenQueue

• No new infrastructure. It runs on the Redis you already have. Run history can persist to the Postgres you already have, via Drizzle.
• Typed end to end. The Zod schema validates payloads at trigger time and types them inside run.
• Operations included. Workbench gives you live counters, run inspection, retry-from-the-UI, flow graphs, schedules, error triage, and a test console — without building an admin page.
• Boring failure semantics. Three attempts with exponential backoff by default; a small error taxonomy (RetryableError, NonRetryableError, timeouts, TTLs) when you need control.

Packages

How it fits together

1. You declare tasks in a directory (for example worker/), one exported task() per job type.
2. worker.config.ts points OpenQueue at that directory and at Redis.
3. openqueue dev (or start in production) discovers the tasks, creates the BullMQ queues and workers, registers cron schedules, and serves Workbench.
4. Your app imports the task and calls .trigger(payload) — or triggers by id over the queue client.

Continue with the Quickstart.