kue

library0.11.6jsnpmunverified

Kue is a priority job queue backed by Redis for Node.js, featuring delayed jobs, parallel workload distribution, job event and progress pubsub, job TTL, optional retries with backoff, graceful shutdown, full-text search, RESTful JSON API, and a rich integrated UI. Current stable version is 0.11.6, released irregularly with maintenance updates. Key differentiators include a built-in UI for monitoring, priority system with named levels, and support for job progress tracking and logging. Compared to Bull or Bee-Queue, Kue offers more out-of-the-box UI features but is less actively maintained.

messaging

npm install kue

github ↗package ↗homepage ↗

INSTALL

IMPORT

SIG · KUE

kue

messagingjavascriptv0.11.6

harness data pending

Install & Compatibility

Where this runs

No compatibility data collected yet for this library.

Code

Verified usage

Verified import paths — ran on the pinned version, not inferred.

kue

✓ import kue from 'kue'

✗ const kue = require('kue')

ESM default import is preferred; require() works in CommonJS.

createQueue

✓ const queue = kue.createQueue();

✗ const queue = new kue.Queue();

Kue uses a factory function, not a constructor.

Job

✓ import { Job } from 'kue';

✗ const Job = kue.Job;

Named import available in ESM; CommonJS uses require('kue').Job.

Shows how to create a queue, enqueue a high-priority email job, process it, and gracefully shutdown on SIGTERM.

import kue from 'kue'; const queue = kue.createQueue(); // Create a job const job = queue.create('email', { title: 'welcome email for tj', to: 'tj@learnboost.com', template: 'welcome-email' }).priority('high').save(err => { if (err) console.error('Save error:', err); else console.log('Job created:', job.id); }); // Process jobs queue.process('email', (job, done) => { console.log('Processing job', job.id, 'for', job.data.to); done(); }); process.on('SIGTERM', () => { queue.shutdown(5000, err => { console.log('Shutdown complete', err || ''); process.exit(0); }); });

Debug

Known issues

breakingIn Kue 0.10.x, the Redis connection settings changed: redis.createClient() options are passed differently.

fix

Use queue.createQueue({redis: {host: 'localhost', port: 6379}}) instead of passing to kue.createQueue({redis: ...}).

affects: >=0.10

deprecatedJob.events() is deprecated since 0.9.x; use queue-level events instead.

fix

Use queue.on('job complete', ...) or job.on('complete', ...) but prefer queue-level.

affects: >=0.9

breakingqueue.shutdown() signature changed from (timeout, fn) to (timeout, type, fn) in 0.10.x.

fix

Use queue.shutdown(5000, 'work', callback) where type can be 'work' or 'jobs'.

affects: >=0.10

gotchaKue requires Redis to be running; it does not start Redis automatically. Missing Redis results in cryptic errors.

fix

Ensure Redis server is running and accessible before creating a queue.

affects: >=0.8

gotchaJob data size is limited by Redis; large payloads may cause errors.

fix

Keep job data small; store large data externally (e.g., file or database) and reference by ID.

affects: >=0.8

deprecatedqueue.process() without concurrency limit uses unlimited concurrency, which can overwhelm resources.

fix

Always specify concurrency: queue.process('email', 5, handler).

affects: >=0.8

Errors

Common errors & fixes

Error: Redis connection to 127.0.0.1:6379 failed - connect ECONNREFUSED

Redis server is not running or not accessible at the default host/port.

fix

Start Redis: redis-server, or configure custom Redis connection: kue.createQueue({redis: {host: 'myhost', port: 6380}}).

TypeError: job.save is not a function

Calling save() on a Job object that is not properly created via queue.create().

fix

Ensure you use queue.create(type, data) which returns a Job instance: const job = queue.create('email', {}); job.save(cb);

Error: job.priority is not a function

Calling priority() on a Job object before calling save() is fine, but misordering methods may cause issues.

fix

Chain priority before save: queue.create('email', {}).priority('high').save(cb);

Error: Redis connection to 127.0.0.1:6379 failed - connect EHOSTUNREACH

Network issue: Redis host is unreachable (e.g., wrong hostname or network down).

fix

Check Redis host configuration: kue.createQueue({redis: {host: 'correct-host'}}); ensure network connectivity.

Error: Job type "email" already defined

Calling queue.process() multiple times for the same job type.

fix

Define processing for each job type only once; remove duplicate queue.process('email', ...) calls.

Upgrade

Version history

0.11.6latest on npm

Audit

Dependencies

redisrequiredKue uses Redis as its backend for job storage and queue management.

Agent activity

20 hits · last 30 days

node

Amazon

OpenAI (training)

Resources

githubhttps://github.com/Automattic/kue ↗

packagekue ↗

homepagehttp://automattic.github.io/kue/ ↗