Trigger.dev is an open-source platform for building and running background jobs, workflows, and AI agents in TypeScript. It allows developers to write asynchronous tasks as normal code while offloading execution to a managed infrastructure that handles scheduling, retries, scaling, and observability.

At its core, Trigger.dev is designed to solve the limitations of serverless environments, where long-running processes often hit timeouts or require complex infrastructure. Instead, it provides durable task execution where workflows can run for extended periods without interruption, making it suitable for AI agents, data pipelines, media processing, and automation tasks.

The platform works by letting developers define “tasks” in their codebase, which are then deployed to Trigger.dev’s runtime. When triggered, these tasks execute in isolated environments with built-in support for queues, concurrency control, and automatic retries. This enables reliable execution of complex workflows such as multi-step AI chains or background processing jobs.

Trigger.dev is especially focused on AI-native workflows. It supports long-running agent executions, tool calling, streaming outputs, and human-in-the-loop pauses. Developers can integrate LLM calls, run code, process files, or orchestrate multi-step reasoning pipelines with full visibility into execution.

A key part of the system is observability. Every task run is tracked in real time, with logs, retries, performance metrics, and error states visible in a dashboard. This makes debugging background workflows significantly easier compared to traditional job queues or serverless functions.

Trigger.dev also supports advanced runtime capabilities such as running system packages (FFmpeg, browsers, Python scripts), scheduling cron jobs, handling batch workflows, and streaming updates to frontend applications. It is built to integrate with modern frameworks like Next.js and supports self-hosting as well as managed cloud deployment.

Key features include:

• TypeScript-first background jobs and workflow definitions
• Long-running tasks with no execution timeouts
• Built-in queues, retries, and concurrency control
• AI agent support with tool calling and streaming outputs
• Human-in-the-loop workflow pauses and approvals
• Full observability with logs, metrics, and run history
• Cron scheduling and batch job execution
• Support for system tools like FFmpeg, browsers, and Python
• Open-source Apache 2.0 license with self-hosting option

Common use cases include:

• Running AI agents and multi-step LLM workflows
• Background processing for web applications
• Media processing (video, audio, image pipelines)
• Email sequences and automation workflows
• Data pipelines and ETL jobs
• Scheduled and event-driven backend tasks
• Integrating long-running jobs into serverless apps

Trigger.dev is developed as a modern background job and AI workflow infrastructure layer, designed to make asynchronous execution reliable, observable, and developer-friendly without requiring traditional job queue infrastructure.