Background Jobs & Cron

Native cron scheduling, worker processes, and managed job queues.

Cron Jobs

Schedule recurring tasks with standard cron syntax:

rf cron add "0 9 * * *" "node scripts/daily-digest.js" --name daily-digest

✓ Cron job created: daily-digest
  Schedule: 0 9 * * * (daily at 9:00 AM UTC)
  Command: node scripts/daily-digest.js
  Next run: 2026-03-17T09:00:00Z

Or define in raidframe.yaml:

services:
  daily-digest:
    type: cron
    schedule: "0 9 * * *"
    command: node scripts/daily-digest.js
    timeout: 300s
    retries: 2

  cleanup:
    type: cron
    schedule: "0 3 * * *"
    command: node scripts/cleanup.js

  weekly-report:
    type: cron
    schedule: "0 10 * * MON"
    command: python scripts/report.py

Manage Cron Jobs

# List all cron jobs
rf cron list

# View execution history
rf cron logs daily-digest

# Trigger manually
rf cron run daily-digest

# Pause without deleting
rf cron pause daily-digest

# Resume
rf cron resume daily-digest

# Delete
rf cron remove daily-digest

Cron Execution History

rf cron logs daily-digest --last 10

RUN ID      STATUS    DURATION  STARTED
run_a8f3    ✓ success 12s       2026-03-16 09:00:01
run_b2c1    ✓ success 14s       2026-03-15 09:00:00
run_c4d2    ✗ failed  8s        2026-03-14 09:00:01
run_d5e3    ✓ success 11s       2026-03-13 09:00:00

View logs for a specific run:

rf cron logs daily-digest --run run_c4d2

Worker Processes

Long-running background processes that run continuously:

services:
  email-worker:
    type: worker
    command: node workers/email.js
    scaling:
      min: 1
      max: 10
      target_queue_depth: 50

  image-processor:
    type: worker
    command: python workers/resize.py
    resources:
      cpu: 2
      memory: 4GB

Workers scale based on queue depth, custom metrics, or fixed instance count. No timeout limits — they run as long as you need.

Job Queues

RaidFrame includes a built-in job queue. No external service needed.

Enqueue Jobs

import { Queue } from "@raidframe/sdk";

const emailQueue = new Queue("emails");

await emailQueue.add("welcome-email", {
  to: "[email protected]",
  template: "welcome",
  data: { name: "Alice" },
});

Process Jobs

import { Worker } from "@raidframe/sdk";

const worker = new Worker("emails", async (job) => {
  await sendEmail(job.data.to, job.data.template, job.data.data);
});

worker.on("completed", (job) => console.log(`Sent: ${job.id}`));
worker.on("failed", (job, err) => console.error(`Failed: ${job.id}`, err));

Queue Configuration

queues:
  emails:
    type: queue
    max_retries: 3
    retry_backoff: exponential
    dead_letter: true
    timeout: 60s
    concurrency: 10

  uploads:
    type: queue
    max_retries: 5
    timeout: 300s
    concurrency: 3
    priority: true

Queue Dashboard

rf queues info emails

Queue: emails
  Pending:    42
  Active:     3
  Completed:  1,847 (24h)
  Failed:     12 (24h)
  Dead letter: 2
  Workers:    3 instances

# Retry failed jobs
rf queues retry emails --all

# Purge dead letter queue
rf queues purge emails --dead-letter

# Drain queue (process remaining, stop accepting new)
rf queues drain emails

Scheduled One-Off Jobs

Run a job at a specific future time:

rf jobs schedule "node scripts/migrate-data.js" --at "2026-03-20T02:00:00Z" --name data-migration

✓ Job scheduled: data-migration
  Runs at: 2026-03-20T02:00:00Z (3 days from now)
  Command: node scripts/migrate-data.js
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