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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Trigger.dev Has a Free API — Background Jobs for Modern TypeScript Apps

#node #typescript #serverless #webdev

What if you could write background jobs in TypeScript — with retries, scheduling, and observability — and deploy them alongside your Next.js or Remix app?

Trigger.dev is an open-source platform for running long-running background jobs in serverless environments.

Why Trigger.dev

Serverless functions timeout after 10-60 seconds. Background jobs need minutes or hours. Trigger.dev bridges this gap:

  • Long-running tasks — up to 5 minutes on free tier, hours on paid
  • Retries with backoff — automatic retry on failure
  • Cron scheduling — built-in cron syntax
  • Real-time logs — see job progress in a dashboard
  • TypeScript-native — define jobs as typed functions
  • Self-hostable — open source, run on your own infrastructure

Quick Start 

npx trigger.dev@latest init
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import { task } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export const processOrder = task({
  id: "process-order",
  retry: { maxAttempts: 3 },
  run: async (payload: { orderId: string }) => {
    // This runs for as long as it needs — not limited by serverless timeouts
    const order = await db.orders.findById(payload.orderId);
    await generateInvoice(order);
    await sendEmail(order.customerEmail, invoice);
    await updateInventory(order.items);
    return { processed: true };
  },
});
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Trigger from your API:

// In your Next.js API route
import { processOrder } from "@/trigger/process-order";

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const { orderId } = await req.json();
  await processOrder.trigger({ orderId });
  return Response.json({ status: "queued" });
}
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Scheduled Jobs 

import { schedules } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export const dailyReport = schedules.task({
  id: "daily-report",
  cron: "0 9 * * *", // Every day at 9am
  run: async () => {
    const metrics = await gatherMetrics();
    await sendSlackReport(metrics);
  },
});
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Free Tier

  • 30,000 task runs/month
  • Up to 5-minute execution time
  • Real-time dashboard
  • 3 team members

Real Use Case

A SaaS app processed CSV uploads in API routes. Large files (50K+ rows) caused Vercel function timeouts. After moving to Trigger.dev, uploads trigger a background job — no timeouts, automatic retries, users get real-time progress updates via the dashboard API.

When to Use Trigger.dev

  • CSV/file processing in serverless environments
  • Email sequences and notifications
  • Scheduled reports and data aggregation
  • Any task that exceeds serverless timeout limits

Get Started

Visit trigger.dev — open source, self-hostable, generous free tier.

Need custom data pipelines or scraping solutions? Check out my Apify actors or email me at spinov001@gmail.com for custom solutions.

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