CLI

There are two main ways to run Graphile Worker: CLI mode and library mode. CLI mode is the easiest to get started with, and is what we recommend for the majority of users. If in doubt go with the CLI - you can always change to library mode later if you need to.

Quickstart

In your existing Node.js project:

Add the worker to your project

npm

npm install --save graphile-worker

Yarn

yarn add graphile-worker

pnpm

pnpm add graphile-worker

Create tasks

Create a tasks/ folder, and place in it JS files containing your task specs. The names of these files will be the task identifiers, e.g. hello below:

tasks/hello.js

module.exports = async (payload, helpers) => {
  const { name } = payload;
  helpers.logger.info(`Hello, ${name}`);
};

Run the worker

(Make sure you're in the folder that contains the tasks/ folder.)

Run Graphile Worker passing in your database connection string:

npx graphile-worker -c "postgres:///my_db"
# or, if you have a remote database, something like:
#   npx graphile-worker -c "postgres://user:pass@host:port/db?ssl=true"
# or, if you prefer envvars
#   DATABASE_URL="..." npx graphile-worker

note

npx runs the local copy of an npm module if it is installed, when you're ready, switch to using the package.json "scripts" entry instead.

Add a job via SQL

Connect to your database and run the following SQL:

SELECT graphile_worker.add_job('hello', json_build_object('name', 'Bobby Tables'));

Success!

You should see the worker output Hello, Bobby Tables. Gosh, that was fast!