npx skills add ...
npx skills add inngest/inngest-skills --skill inngest-durable-functions
Use when building functions that must survive process crashes, retry automatically on failure, run on a schedule, react to events, or maintain state across infrastructure failures — e.g., webhook handlers that drop events, flaky cron jobs, background jobs that fail mid-execution, or workflows that need to resume where they left off. Covers Inngest function configuration, triggers (events, cron, invoke), step execution and memoization, idempotency, cancellation, error handling, retries, logging, and observability.
npx skills add inngest/inngest-skills --skill inngest-durable-functions
Master Inngest's durable execution model for building fault-tolerant, long-running workflows. This skill covers the complete lifecycle from triggers to error handling.
These skills are focused on TypeScript. For Python or Go, refer to the Inngest documentation for language-specific guidance. Core concepts apply across all languages.
Every Inngest function has these hard limits:
If you're hitting these limits, break your function into smaller functions connected via step.invoke() or step.sendEvent().
Always wrap in step.run():
Never wrap in step.run():
Triggers are defined in the triggers array in the first argument of createFunction:
In expressions, event = the original triggering event, async = the new event being matched. See Expression Syntax Reference for full details.
Prevent retries for code that won't succeed upon retry.
⚠️ v4 Breaking Change: The logLevel option has been removed. Use the logger option with ConsoleLogger or a custom logger instead.
Checkpointing is enabled by default in v4. It allows functions to persist state periodically during execution, reducing latency between steps.
This skill covers Inngest's durable function patterns. For event sending and webhook handling, see the inngest-events skill.
const processOrder = inngest.createFunction(
{
id: "process-order", // Unique, never change this
triggers: [{ event: "order/created" }],
retries: 4, // Default: 4 retries per step
concurrency: 10 // Max concurrent executions
},
async ({ event, step }) => {
// Your durable workflow
}
);// Step IDs can be reused - Inngest handles counters automatically
const data = await step.run("fetch-data", () => fetchUserData());
const more = await step.run("fetch-data", () => fetchOrderData()); // Different execution
// Use descriptive IDs for clarity
await step.run("validate-payment", () => validatePayment(event.data.paymentId));
await step.run("charge-customer", () => chargeCustomer(event.data));
await step.run("send-confirmation", () => sendEmail(event.data.email));// Single event trigger
inngest.createFunction(
{ id: "my-fn", triggers: [{ event: "user/signup" }] },
async ({ event }) => { /* ... */ }
);
// Event with conditional filter
inngest.createFunction(
{ id: "my-fn", triggers: [{ event: "user/action", if: 'event.data.action == "purchase" && event.data.amount > 100' }] },
async ({ event }) => { /* ... */ }
);
// Multiple triggers (up to 10)
inngest.createFunction(
{
id: "my-fn",
triggers: [
{ event: "user/signup" },
{ event: "user/login", if: 'event.data.firstLogin == true' },
{ cron: "0 9 * * *" } // Daily at 9 AM
]
},
async ({ event }) => { /* ... */ }
);// Basic cron
inngest.createFunction(
{ id: "my-fn", triggers: [{ cron: "0 */6 * * *" }] }, // Every 6 hours
async ({ step }) => { /* ... */ }
);
// With timezone
inngest.createFunction(
{ id: "my-fn", triggers: [{ cron: "TZ=Europe/Paris 0 12 * * 5" }] }, // Fridays at noon Paris time
async ({ step }) => { /* ... */ }
);
// Combine with events
inngest.createFunction(
{
id: "my-fn",
triggers: [
{ event: "manual/report.requested" },
{ cron: "0 0 * * 0" } // Weekly on Sunday
]
},
async ({ event, step }) => { /* ... */ }
);// Invoke another function as a step
const result = await step.invoke("generate-report", {
function: generateReportFunction,
data: { userId: event.data.userId }
});
// Use returned data
await step.run("process-report", () => {
return processReport(result);
});// Prevent duplicate events with custom ID
await inngest.send({
id: `checkout-completed-${cartId}`, // 24-hour deduplication
name: "cart/checkout.completed",
data: { cartId, email: "user@example.com" }
});const sendEmail = inngest.createFunction(
{
id: "send-checkout-email",
triggers: [{ event: "cart/checkout.completed" }],
// Only run once per cartId per 24 hours
idempotency: "event.data.cartId"
},
async ({ event, step }) => {
// This function won't run twice for same cartId
}
);
// Complex idempotency keys
const processUserAction = inngest.createFunction(
{
id: "process-user-action",
triggers: [{ event: "user/action.performed" }],
// Unique per user + organization combination
idempotency: 'event.data.userId + "-" + event.data.organizationId'
},
async ({ event, step }) => {
/* ... */
}
);const processOrder = inngest.createFunction(
{
id: "process-order",
triggers: [{ event: "order/created" }],
cancelOn: [
{
event: "order/cancelled",
if: "event.data.orderId == async.data.orderId"
}
]
},
async ({ event, step }) => {
await step.sleepUntil("wait-for-payment", event.data.paymentDue);
// Will be cancelled if order/cancelled event received
await step.run("charge-payment", () => processPayment(event.data));
}
);const processWithTimeout = inngest.createFunction(
{
id: "process-with-timeout",
triggers: [{ event: "long/process.requested" }],
timeouts: {
start: "5m", // Cancel if not started within 5 minutes
finish: "30m" // Cancel if not finished within 30 minutes
}
},
async ({ event, step }) => {
/* ... */
}
);// Listen for cancellation events
const cleanupCancelled = inngest.createFunction(
{ id: "cleanup-cancelled-process", triggers: [{ event: "inngest/function.cancelled" }] },
async ({ event, step }) => {
if (event.data.function_id === "process-order") {
await step.run("cleanup-resources", () => {
return cleanupOrderResources(event.data.run_id);
});
}
}
);const reliableFunction = inngest.createFunction(
{
id: "reliable-function",
triggers: [{ event: "critical/task" }],
retries: 10 // Up to 10 retries per step
},
async ({ event, step, attempt }) => {
// `attempt` is the function-level attempt counter (0-indexed)
// It tracks retries for the currently executing step, not the overall function
if (attempt > 5) {
// Different logic for later attempts of the current step
}
}
);import { NonRetriableError } from "inngest";
const processUser = inngest.createFunction(
{ id: "process-user", triggers: [{ event: "user/process.requested" }] },
async ({ event, step }) => {
const user = await step.run("fetch-user", async () => {
const user = await db.users.findOne(event.data.userId);
if (!user) {
// Don't retry - user doesn't exist
throw new NonRetriableError("User not found, stopping execution");
}
return user;
});
// Continue processing...
}
);import { RetryAfterError } from "inngest";
const respectRateLimit = inngest.createFunction(
{ id: "api-call", triggers: [{ event: "api/call.requested" }] },
async ({ event, step }) => {
await step.run("call-api", async () => {
const response = await externalAPI.call(event.data);
if (response.status === 429) {
// Retry after specific time from API
const retryAfter = response.headers["retry-after"];
throw new RetryAfterError("Rate limited", `${retryAfter}s`);
}
return response.data;
});
}
);import winston from "winston";
// Configure logger
const logger = winston.createLogger({
level: "info",
format: winston.format.json(),
transports: [new winston.transports.Console()]
});
const inngest = new Inngest({
id: "my-app",
logger // Pass logger to client
});
// Or use the built-in ConsoleLogger for simple log level control
import { ConsoleLogger, Inngest } from "inngest";
const inngest = new Inngest({
id: "my-app",
logger: new ConsoleLogger({ level: "debug" }) // "debug" | "info" | "warn" | "error"
});const processData = inngest.createFunction(
{ id: "process-data", triggers: [{ event: "data/process.requested" }] },
async ({ event, step, logger }) => {
// ✅ GOOD: Log inside steps to avoid duplicates
const result = await step.run("fetch-data", async () => {
logger.info("Fetching data for user", { userId: event.data.userId });
return await fetchUserData(event.data.userId);
});
// ❌ AVOID: Logging outside steps can duplicate
// logger.info("Processing complete"); // This could run multiple times!
await step.run("log-completion", async () => {
logger.info("Processing complete", { resultCount: result.length });
});
}
);// Checkpointing is enabled by default in v4
// Configure maxRuntime for serverless platforms (set to 60-80% of platform timeout)
const realTimeFunction = inngest.createFunction(
{
id: "real-time-function",
triggers: [{ event: "realtime/process" }],
checkpointing: {
maxRuntime: "50s", // For serverless with 60s timeout
}
},
async ({ event, step }) => {
// Steps execute immediately with periodic checkpointing
const result1 = await step.run("step-1", () => process1(event.data));
const result2 = await step.run("step-2", () => process2(result1));
return { result2 };
}
);
// Disable checkpointing if needed
const legacyFunction = inngest.createFunction(
{
id: "legacy-function",
triggers: [{ event: "legacy/process" }],
checkpointing: false
},
async ({ event, step }) => { /* ... */ }
);const conditionalProcess = inngest.createFunction(
{ id: "conditional-process", triggers: [{ event: "process/conditional" }] },
async ({ event, step }) => {
const userData = await step.run("fetch-user", () => {
return getUserData(event.data.userId);
});
// Conditional step execution
if (userData.isPremium) {
await step.run("premium-processing", () => {
return processPremiumFeatures(userData);
});
}
// Always runs
await step.run("standard-processing", () => {
return processStandardFeatures(userData);
});
}
);const robustProcess = inngest.createFunction(
{ id: "robust-process", triggers: [{ event: "process/robust" }] },
async ({ event, step }) => {
let primaryResult;
try {
primaryResult = await step.run("primary-service", () => {
return callPrimaryService(event.data);
});
} catch (error) {
// Fallback to secondary service
primaryResult = await step.run("fallback-service", () => {
return callSecondaryService(event.data);
});
}
return { result: primaryResult };
}
);