Trigger.dev

What does this agent do, and when should you use it?

Trigger.dev is an open-source platform for building AI workflows and background tasks in TypeScript. Developers define tasks inside their own codebase with its JavaScript/TypeScript SDK, then connect them to Trigger.dev Cloud or deploy the platform using its documented self-hosting paths. Its execution model targets long-running work and includes checkpoint-based durability, automatic retries, queues, concurrency controls, idempotency, and elastic scaling. Tasks can pause for time or human judgment, while Realtime subscriptions can deliver run updates and streamed AI responses to applications. Each run exposes tracing, logs, mutable metadata, and operational controls across Development, Preview, Staging, and Production environments. It fits teams that need reliable execution infrastructure and run visibility, rather than adopters seeking a prebuilt conversational agent, bundled model, or predefined agent behavior.

A developer imports task from @trigger.dev/sdk, assigns a unique id, and implements an asynchronous run function that reads a typed payload and executes application code. Tasks can be triggered individually or in batches, started on recurring schedules, and paused with waits or waitpoints; waitpoints support human approval, rejection, or feedback. The platform queues runs, enforces concurrency rules, retries uncaught failures, and resumes durable work through checkpointing. Trigger.dev Realtime and its React hooks let frontends subscribe to runs, receive live updates, and stream AI responses. Runs produce logs and traces and can carry tags and progressively updated metadata; operators can also replay or cancel runs in bulk and configure failure alerts. Tasks can run on the managed, auto-scaling cloud, while the platform also offers Docker Compose and Kubernetes self-hosting paths.

1. A TypeScript product team needs AI workflows that may outlive ordinary serverless execution limits, such as multi-stage model calls with waits on external services.
2. A backend team needs resource-heavy background jobs with configurable CPU and memory plus system packages for browsers, Python scripts, or FFmpeg.
3. An operations or review team needs automation to stop at a critical decision point until a person approves, rejects, or supplies feedback.
4. A product team wants a React interface that displays background-run progress, changing metadata, or streamed AI output in real time.
5. A platform team needs to schedule and batch work with queues and concurrency limits, then investigate failures through retries, traces, logs, and alerts.
6. An organization with deployment-control requirements wants a choice between a managed cloud and Docker Compose or Kubernetes self-hosting.

How do you install or deploy this agent?

The supplied material does not include a copyable SDK installation command, supported Node.js version, package-manager command, cloud credential names, or self-hosting environment variables. The documented fastest path is to create an account and project at https://cloud.trigger.dev and follow its onboarding flow. Task code requires @trigger.dev/sdk, but the exact installation command must be confirmed from the quick-start documentation. Docker Compose and an official Kubernetes Helm chart are named as self-hosting options, but no reproducible deployment commands or configuration are included here.

How do you use this agent?

Define and export a task in the application codebase. This is the minimal task shown in the supplied material:

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);
  },
});

This task accepts a payload containing message and logs it from run. The supplied material does not show the first API request, CLI command, endpoint, authentication variable, or deployment command needed to trigger it, so completing a first run requires the additional steps from the cloud onboarding or quick-start documentation.

What are this agent's strengths and limitations?

How does this agent compare with similar options?

Key facts side by side with the most closely related agents.

How does FollowAgents rate this agent?

Recent releases

Latest entries from the project's GitHub Releases. Notes are quoted from upstream as written, not rewritten or tested by FollowAgents.

1. helm-v4.8.3 Helm Chart 4.8.3 2026-10-30
   Release notes excerpt

   Installation ```bash helm upgrade --install trigger \ oci://ghcr.io/triggerdotdev/charts/trigger \ --version "4.8.3" ``` Changes See commit history for detailed changes in this release.

   View on GitHub ↗
2. v4.8.3 trigger.dev v4.8.3 2026-10-30
   Release notes excerpt

   trigger.dev v4.8.3 Upgrade ```sh npx trigger.dev@latest update # npm pnpm dlx trigger.dev@latest update # pnpm yarn dlx trigger.dev@latest update # yarn bunx trigger.dev@latest update # bun ``` Self-hosted Docker image: [ghcr.io/triggerdotdev/trigger.dev:v4.8.3](https://github.com/triggerdotdev/trigger.dev/pkgs/container/trigger.dev/1473927796?tag=v4.8.3) Release notes Read the full release notes: https://trigger.dev/changelog/v4-8-3 What's changed Improvements …

   View on GitHub ↗
3. helm-v4.8.2 Helm Chart 4.8.2 2026-10-29
   Release notes excerpt

   Installation ```bash helm upgrade --install trigger \ oci://ghcr.io/triggerdotdev/charts/trigger \ --version "4.8.2" ``` Changes See commit history for detailed changes in this release.

   View on GitHub ↗

FAQ