[opensourcedex]

Trigger is a free, open source orchestration & scheduling project written in TypeScript and released under Apache-2.0. It has 16,324 GitHub stars, 1,462 forks and 342 open issues, and was last pushed 3 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #12 of 64 tracked projects in Orchestration & Scheduling, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 59 stars over the last 6 tracked days.

Trigger — Run long-running AI tasks without timeouts or servers

What is Trigger?

What it is

Trigger is an open-source TypeScript platform for building and deploying AI agents and workflow tasks. It lives in the infrastructure, orchestration, and scheduling ecosystem, and it is positioned as a way to run long-running AI tasks without typical serverless timeout constraints. The project provides a software development kit, a deployment target, and operational features such as retries, queues, observability, and elastic scaling.

The problem it addresses is durable AI workloads that take longer than ordinary request cycles, require retries, need schedules, or must interact with external services and humans. Instead of forcing those workflows into short-lived functions, Trigger lets developers define tasks in JavaScript or TypeScript, attach schedules, pause for approval, stream results, and customize runtimes with system packages such as browsers, Python scripts, and FFmpeg.

Key capabilities

  • The JavaScript and TypeScript SDK lets developers build background tasks with familiar programming models and deploy them as durable tasks.
  • Long-running task execution is designed to avoid timeouts, which the README contrasts with AWS Lambda, Vercel, and other serverless platforms.
  • Durable tasks include retries, queues, and idempotency, so failed or repeated AI work can be handled without relying only on application code.
  • Durable cron schedules can create recurring tasks with durations of up to a year, according to the README.
  • Realtime support lets applications trigger runs, subscribe to updates, and stream AI responses into user-facing interfaces.
  • Human-in-the-loop workflows can pause a task until a person approves, rejects, or provides feedback.
  • Structured inputs and outputs, batch triggering, waits, build extensions, and React hooks support validation, multiple runs, delays, customization, and frontend integration.

Who uses it and how

  • Teams building AI agents can use existing frameworks, services, and large language models, then deploy those agents as durable tasks.
  • Teams running automation workflows can use scheduled tasks, queues, retries, and waits to coordinate jobs that survive delays or failures.
  • Teams with resource-heavy processing can customize deployed tasks with system packages, including browsers, Python scripts, and FFmpeg.
  • Teams with user-facing products can use Trigger.dev Realtime and React hooks to subscribe to runs, stream responses, and update frontends.
  • Teams that need human review can pause tasks for approval, rejection, or feedback before continuing execution.

Getting started

The README points to the npm package @trigger.dev/sdk, Trigger.dev documentation, and a self-hosting overview.

When to use it — and when not to

Trigger is a fit when a team needs durable, long-running TypeScript AI workflows that use retries, queues, schedules, observability, and realtime updates. It is less suitable for simple short-lived functions, and the listed metadata shows zero contributors and 342 open issues. Self-hosting is documented, but the excerpt does not specify required infrastructure.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Trigger.dev logo

Build and deploy fully‑managed AI agents and workflows

Website | Docs | Issues | Example projects | Feature requests | Public roadmap | Self-hosting

Open Source License npm SDK downloads

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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:

Self-hosting

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

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

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is Trigger free to use?

Trigger is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does Trigger do?

Run long-running AI tasks without timeouts or servers

What is Trigger written in?

Trigger is primarily written in TypeScript. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/triggerdotdev/trigger.dev, and it has 16,324 GitHub stars.