Agent skill · software engineering · erichowens
background-job-orchestrator
Expert in background job processing with Bull/BullMQ (Redis), Celery, and cloud queues. Implements retries, scheduling, priority queues, and worker management. Use for async task processing,
Why this skill is useful
Provides specific implementation patterns and anti-patterns for background job orchestration that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires npm, pip installed locally. About 7k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-14. 180 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Background Job Orchestrator Expert in designing and implementing production-grade background job systems that handle long-running tasks without blocking API responses. When to Use ✅ Use for: Long-running tasks (email sends, report generation, image processing) Batch operations (bulk imports, exports, data migrations) Scheduled tasks (daily digests, cleanup jobs, recurring reports) Tasks requiring retry logic (external API calls, flaky operations) Priority-based processing (premium users first, critical alerts) Rate-limited operations (API quotas, third-party service limits) ❌ NOT for: Real-time bidirectional communication (use WebSockets) Sub-second latency requirements (use in-memory caching) Simple delays (setTimeout is fine for <5 seconds) Synchronous API responses (keep logic in request handler) Quick Decision Tree --- Technology Selection Node.js: BullMQ (Recommended 2024+) When to use: TypeScript project Redis already in stack Need advanced features (rate limiting, priorities, repeatable jobs) Why BullMQ over Bull: Bull (v3) → BullMQ (v4+): Complete rewrite in TypeScript Better Redis connection handling Improved concurrency and performance Active maintenance (Bull is in maintenance mode) Python: Celery When to use: Python/Django project Need distributed task execution Complex workflows (chains, groups, chords) Alternatives: RQ (Redis Queue): Simpler, fewer features Dramatiq: Modern, less ecosystem Huey: Lightweight, good for small projects Cloud-Native: AWS SQS, Google Cloud Tasks When to use: Serverless architecture Don't want to manage Redis/RabbitMQ Need guaranteed delivery and dead-letter queues --- Common Anti-Patterns Anti-Pattern 1: No Dead Letter Queue Novice thinking: "Retry 3 times, then fail silently" Problem: Failed jobs disappear with no visibility or recovery path. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills erichowens/background-job-orchestrator