trigger-dev-tasks

---
name: trigger-dev-tasks
description: Use this skill when writing, designing, or optimizing Trigger.dev background tasks and workflows. This includes creating reliable async tasks, implementing AI workflows, setting up scheduled jobs, structuring complex task hierarchies with subtasks, configuring build extensions for tools like ffmpeg or Puppeteer/Playwright, and handling task schemas with Zod validation.
license: Apache-2.0
---

# Trigger.dev Task Expert

You are an expert Trigger.dev developer specializing in building production-grade background job systems. Tasks deployed to Trigger.dev run in Node.js 21+ and use the `@trigger.dev/sdk` package.

## Critical Rules

1. **Always use `@trigger.dev/sdk`** - Never use `@trigger.dev/sdk/v3` or deprecated `client.defineJob` pattern
2. **Never use `node-fetch`** - Use the built-in `fetch` function
3. **Export all tasks** - Every task must be exported, including subtasks
4. **Never wrap wait/trigger calls in Promise.all** - `triggerAndWait`, `batchTriggerAndWait`, and `wait.*` calls cannot be wrapped in `Promise.all` or `Promise.allSettled`

## Basic Task Pattern

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

export const processData = task({
  id: "process-data",
  retry: {
    maxAttempts: 10,
    factor: 1.8,
    minTimeoutInMs: 500,
    maxTimeoutInMs: 30_000,
  },
  run: async (payload: { userId: string; data: any[] }) => {
    console.log(`Processing ${payload.data.length} items`);
    return { processed: payload.data.length };
  },
});
```

## Schema Task (with validation)

```ts
import { schemaTask } from "@trigger.dev/sdk";
import { z } from "zod";

export const validatedTask = schemaTask({
  id: "validated-task",
  schema: z.object({
    name: z.string(),
    email: z.string().email(),
  }),
  run: async (payload) => {
    // Payload is automatically validated and typed
    return { message: `Hello ${payload.name}` };
  },
});
```

## Triggering Tasks

### From Backend Code (type-only import to prevent dependency leakage)

```ts
import { tasks } from "@trigger.dev/sdk";
import type { processData } from "./trigger/tasks";

const handle = await tasks.trigger<typeof processData>("process-data", {
  userId: "123",
  data: [{ id: 1 }],
});
```

### From Inside Tasks

```ts
export const parentTask = task({
  id: "parent-task",
  run: async (payload) => {
    // Trigger and wait - returns Result object, NOT direct output
    const result = await childTask.triggerAndWait({ data: "value" });
    if (result.ok) {
      console.log("Output:", result.output);
    } else {
      console.error("Failed:", result.error);
    }

    // Or unwrap directly (throws on error)
    const output = await childTask.triggerAndWait({ data: "value" }).unwrap();
  },
});
```

## Idempotency (Critical for Retries)

Always use idempotency keys when triggering tasks from inside other tasks:

```ts
import { idempotencyKeys } from "@trigger.dev/sdk";

export const paymentTask = task({
  id: "process-payment",
  run: async (payload: { orderId: string }) => {
    // Scoped to current run - survives retries
    const key = await idempotencyKeys.create(`payment-${payload.orderId}`);

    await chargeCustomer.trigger(payload, {
      idempotencyKey: key,
      idempotencyKeyTTL: "24h",
    });
  },
});
```

## Trigger Options

```ts
await myTask.trigger(payload, {
  delay: "1h",           // Delay execution
  ttl: "10m",            // Cancel if not started within TTL
  idempotencyKey: key,
  queue: "my-queue",
  machine: "large-1x",   // micro, small-1x, small-2x, medium-1x, medium-2x, large-1x, large-2x
  maxAttempts: 3,
  tags: ["user_123"],    // Max 10 tags
  debounce: {            // Consolidate rapid triggers
    key: "unique-key",
    delay: "5s",
    mode: "trailing",    // "leading" (default) or "trailing"
  },
});
```

## Debouncing

Consolidate multiple triggers into a single execution:

```ts
// Rapid triggers with same key = single execution
await myTask.trigger({ userId: "123" }, {
  debounce: {
    key: "user-123-update",
    delay: "5s",
  },
});

// Trailing mode: use payload from LAST trigger
await myTask.trigger({ data: "latest" }, {
  debounce: {
    key: "my-key",
    delay: "10s",
    mode: "trailing",
  },
});
```

Use cases: user activity updates, webhook deduplication, search indexing, notification batching.

## Batch Triggering

Up to 1,000 items per batch, 3MB per payload:

```ts
const results = await myTask.batchTriggerAndWait([
  { payload: { userId: "1" } },
  { payload: { userId: "2" } },
]);

for (const result of results) {
  if (result.ok) console.log(result.output);
}
```

## Machine Presets

| Preset      | vCPU | Memory |
|-------------|------|--------|
| micro       | 0.25 | 0.25GB |
| small-1x    | 0.5  | 0.5GB  |
| small-2x    | 1    | 1GB    |
| medium-1x   | 1    | 2GB    |
| medium-2x   | 2    | 4GB    |
| large-1x    | 4    | 8GB    |
| large-2x    | 8    | 16GB   |

## Design Principles

1. **Break complex workflows into subtasks** that can be independently retried and made idempotent
2. **Don't over-complicate** - Sometimes `Promise.allSettled` inside a single task is better than many subtasks (each task has dedicated process and is charged by millisecond)
3. **Always configure retries** - Set appropriate `maxAttempts` based on the operation
4. **Use idempotency keys** - Especially for payment/critical operations
5. **Group related subtasks** - Keep subtasks only used by one parent in the same file, don't export them
6. **Use logger** - Log at key execution points with `logger.info()`, `logger.error()`, etc.

## Reference Documentation

For detailed documentation on specific topics, read these files:

- `basic-tasks.md` - Task basics, triggering, waits
- `advanced-tasks.md` - Tags, queues, concurrency, metadata, error handling
- `scheduled-tasks.md` - Cron schedules, declarative and imperative
- `realtime.md` - Real-time subscriptions, streams, React hooks
- `config.md` - trigger.config.ts, build extensions (Prisma, Playwright, FFmpeg, etc.)