Tasker: Making Complex Workflows Easy-ish

Tasker is a production-ready Rails engine that transforms complex, multi-step processes into reliable, observable workflows. It handles the orchestration complexity so you can focus on your business logic.

• Complex Workflow Patterns: Linear, diamond, tree, and parallel merge workflows
• Intelligent Retry Logic: Exponential backoff with configurable retry limits
• Production Resilience: Automatic failure recovery and retry orchestration
• Complete Observability: Event-driven architecture with comprehensive telemetry
• Enterprise Security: Authentication & authorization with GraphQL operation-level permissions
• High Performance: SQL-function based orchestration with 4x performance gains
• Thread-Safe Registry Systems: Enterprise-grade registry architecture with structured logging
• Advanced Plugin Architecture: Extensible plugin system with format-based discovery

Perfect for processes that involve multiple interdependent steps, require automatic retries, need visibility into progress and errors, and must handle transient failures gracefully.

Add Tasker to your Rails app's Gemfile:

source 'https://rubygems.pkg.github.com/tasker-systems' do
  gem 'tasker-engine', '~> 1.0.0'
end

Install and run the migrations:

bundle exec rails tasker:install:migrations
bundle exec rails tasker:install:database_objects
bundle exec rails db:migrate

Mount the engine and set up configuration:

# config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
  mount Tasker::Engine, at: '/tasker', as: 'tasker'
end

bundle exec rails tasker:setup

Create a production-ready Rails application with Tasker integration in one command:

# Traditional setup
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tasker-systems/tasker/main/scripts/install-tasker-app.sh | bash

# Docker-based development environment
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tasker-systems/tasker/main/scripts/install-tasker-app.sh | bash -s -- \
  --app-name my-tasker-app \
  --docker \
  --with-observability

Includes complete application templates for e-commerce, inventory management, and customer onboarding workflows. See Application Generator Guide for details.

Tasker organizes workflows around these key concepts:

• Tasks: The overall process to be executed
• TaskNamespaces: Organizational hierarchy for grouping related task types
• TaskHandlers: Classes that define and coordinate workflow steps
• Steps: Individual units of work within a task
• StepHandlers: Classes that implement the logic for each step
• Dependencies: Relationships between steps that determine execution order
• Versioning: Semantic versioning support for task handlers with coexistence

Tasker supports organizing task handlers into logical namespaces for better organization and isolation:

# Different namespaces can have tasks with the same name
payments_task = Tasker::HandlerFactory.instance.get(
  'process_order',
  namespace_name: 'payments',
  version: '2.1.0'
)

inventory_task = Tasker::HandlerFactory.instance.get(
  'process_order',
  namespace_name: 'inventory',
  version: '1.5.0'
)

Common namespace patterns:

• payments - Payment processing workflows
• inventory - Stock and inventory management
• notifications - Email, SMS, and alert workflows
• integrations - Third-party API integrations
• data_processing - ETL and data transformation workflows
• default - General-purpose workflows (used when no namespace specified)

Create a task handler for processing orders:

rails generate tasker:task_handler OrderProcess

This creates a complete workflow structure:

YAML Configuration (config/tasker/tasks/order_process.yaml):

---
name: order_process
namespace_name: default
version: 1.0.0
task_handler_class: OrderProcess

step_templates:
  - name: validate_order
    description: Validate order details
    handler_class: OrderProcess::StepHandler::ValidateOrderHandler

  - name: process_payment
    description: Process payment for the order
    depends_on_step: validate_order
    handler_class: OrderProcess::StepHandler::ProcessPaymentHandler
    default_retryable: true
    default_retry_limit: 3

  - name: send_confirmation
    description: Send confirmation email
    depends_on_step: process_payment
    handler_class: OrderProcess::StepHandler::SendConfirmationHandler

Step Handler Implementation:

module OrderProcess
  module StepHandler
    class ValidateOrderHandler < Tasker::StepHandler::Base
      def process(task, sequence, step)
        order_id = task.context['order_id']
        order = Order.find(order_id)

        raise "Order not found" unless order
        raise "Order already processed" if order.processed?

        { order: order.as_json, valid: true }
      end
    end
  end
end

Using Your Workflow:

# Create and execute a task
task_request = Tasker::Types::TaskRequest.new(
  name: 'order_process',
  namespace: 'default',        # Optional - defaults to 'default'
  version: '1.0.0',           # Optional - defaults to '0.1.0'
  context: { order_id: 12345 }
)

# Handler lookup now supports namespace + version
handler = Tasker::HandlerFactory.instance.get(
  'order_process',
  namespace_name: 'default',   # Optional - defaults to 'default'
  version: '1.0.0'            # Optional - defaults to '0.1.0'
)
task = handler.initialize_task!(task_request)

# Task is now queued for processing with automatic retry logic

Tasker includes enterprise-grade security that works with any Rails authentication system:

# config/initializers/tasker.rb
Tasker.configuration do |config|
  config.auth do |auth|
    auth.authentication_enabled = true
    auth.authenticator_class = 'YourAuthenticator'
    auth.authorization_enabled = true
    auth.authorization_coordinator_class = 'YourAuthorizationCoordinator'
  end
end

Automatic GraphQL Security: Operations are automatically mapped to permissions:

# GraphQL query automatically requires tasker.task:index permission
query { tasks { taskId status } }

# GraphQL mutation automatically requires tasker.task:create permission
mutation { createTask(input: { name: "New Task" }) { taskId } }

Tasker provides comprehensive REST API endpoints for handler discovery, task management, and dependency graph analysis:

Handler Discovery API:

# List all namespaces with handler counts
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT_TOKEN" \
     https://your-app.com/tasker/handlers

# List handlers in specific namespace
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT_TOKEN" \
     https://your-app.com/tasker/handlers/payments

# Get handler details with dependency graph
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT_TOKEN" \
     https://your-app.com/tasker/handlers/payments/process_order?version=2.1.0

Response includes dependency graph visualization:

{
  "id": "process_order",
  "namespace": "payments",
  "version": "2.1.0",
  "step_templates": [...],
  "dependency_graph": {
    "nodes": ["validate_order", "process_payment", "send_confirmation"],
    "edges": [
      {"from": "validate_order", "to": "process_payment"},
      {"from": "process_payment", "to": "send_confirmation"}
    ],
    "execution_order": ["validate_order", "process_payment", "send_confirmation"]
  }
}

Task Management API:

# Create task with namespace/version support
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"name": "process_order", "namespace": "payments", "version": "2.1.0", "context": {"order_id": 123}}' \
     https://your-app.com/tasker/tasks

# List tasks with namespace filtering
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT_TOKEN" \
     "https://your-app.com/tasker/tasks?namespace=payments&version=2.1.0"

Tasker provides comprehensive event-driven observability for custom integrations:

class OrderEventsSubscriber < Tasker::Events::Subscribers::BaseSubscriber
  subscribe_to 'task.completed', 'task.failed'

  def handle_task_completed(event)
    task_id = safe_get(event, :task_id)
    NotificationService.send_success_email(task_id: task_id)
  end

  def handle_task_failed(event)
    task_id = safe_get(event, :task_id)
    error_message = safe_get(event, :error_message)
    AlertService.send_failure_alert(task_id: task_id, error: error_message)
  end
end

Built-in OpenTelemetry integration provides complete observability:

# config/initializers/tasker.rb
Tasker.configuration do |config|
  config.telemetry do |tel|
    tel.enabled = true
    tel.service_name = 'my-app-workflows'
    tel.service_version = '1.0.0'
  end
end

Compatible with Jaeger, Zipkin, Honeycomb, and other OpenTelemetry-compatible tools.

Tasker features enterprise-grade registry systems with thread-safe operations and comprehensive observability:

Thread-Safe Registries:

• HandlerFactory: Thread-safe task handler registration with Concurrent::Hash storage
• PluginRegistry: Format-based plugin discovery with auto-discovery capabilities
• SubscriberRegistry: Event subscriber management with structured logging

Advanced Features:

• Structured Logging: Correlation IDs and JSON formatting for comprehensive observability
• Interface Validation: Fail-fast validation with detailed error messages
• Replace Operations: Conflict resolution with replace: true parameter
• Event Integration: Registry operations fully integrated with the 56-event system

Production Benefits:

# Thread-safe operations with structured logging
Tasker::HandlerFactory.instance.register(
  'order_processor',
  OrderHandler,
  namespace_name: 'payments',
  version: '2.1.0',
  replace: true  # Handles conflicts gracefully
)

# Automatic structured logging with correlation IDs
# {"timestamp":"2024-01-15T10:30:45Z","correlation_id":"tsk_abc123","component":"handler_factory","message":"Registry item registered","entity_id":"payments/order_processor/2.1.0","event_type":"registered"}

Tasker provides enterprise-grade health endpoints for production deployments:

# Kubernetes readiness probe - checks database connectivity
GET /tasker/health/ready

# Kubernetes liveness probe - lightweight health check
GET /tasker/health/live

# Detailed status endpoint - comprehensive system metrics
GET /tasker/health/status

Optional Authentication & Authorization:

# config/initializers/tasker.rb
Tasker.configuration do |config|
  config.health do |health|
    health.status_requires_authentication = true  # Secure detailed status
  end

  config.auth do |auth|
    auth.authorization_enabled = true
    # Status endpoint requires tasker.health_status:index permission
  end
end

Performance Optimized: Uses SQL functions and 15-second caching for sub-100ms response times.

• Quick Setup: Working workflows in minutes with generators
• Clear Structure: YAML configuration with Ruby implementation
• Comprehensive Testing: Built-in test infrastructure and patterns
• Rich Documentation: Extensive guides and examples

• Production Ready: Battle-tested retry logic and error handling
• Health Monitoring: Enterprise-grade health endpoints for K8s and load balancers
• Observable: Complete event system with telemetry integration
• Secure: Enterprise-grade authentication and authorization
• Performant: SQL-function based orchestration with proven performance
• Thread-Safe: Concurrent registry operations with structured logging and correlation IDs
• Reliable: 100% test coverage with comprehensive validation and error handling

• Reliable: Automatic retry with exponential backoff
• Scalable: Handles complex workflows with multiple dependencies
• Maintainable: Clear separation of concerns and documented patterns
• Extensible: Event system enables custom integrations

• Quick Start Guide - Build your first workflow in 15 minutes
• Developer Guide - Comprehensive implementation guide
• Examples - Real-world workflow patterns and implementations

• REST API Guide - Complete REST API documentation with handler discovery
• Registry Systems - Thread-safe registry architecture and structured logging
• Authentication & Authorization - Complete security system
• Health Monitoring - Production health endpoints and monitoring
• Event System - Observability and integrations
• Telemetry - OpenTelemetry setup and monitoring
• Performance - High-performance SQL functions
• Circuit Breaker - Distributed, SQL-driven retry architecture

• Application Generator - One-line app creation with Docker support and validation
• System Overview - Architecture and configuration
• Task Diagrams - Visual workflow representation
• Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions

• Ruby: 3.2+
• Rails: 7.2+
• Database: PostgreSQL (required for SQL functions)
• Background Jobs: Compatible with ActiveJob (Sidekiq recommended)

# Set up development environment
bundle install
bundle exec rake db:schema:load

# Run tests
bundle exec rspec spec

# Run linter
bundle exec rubocop

We welcome contributions! Please see our development guidelines for information on setting up your development environment and our coding standards.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Tasker transforms complex workflows into reliable, observable processes. Focus on your business logic while Tasker handles the orchestration complexity.