Backend overview

Using the Trigger.dev realtime API from your backend code

Use these backend functions to subscribe to runs and streams from your server-side code or other tasks.

Overview

There are three main categories of functionality:

• Subscribe functions - Subscribe to run updates using async iterators
• Metadata - Update and subscribe to run metadata in real-time
• Streams - Read and consume real-time streaming data from your tasks

To learn how to emit streams from your tasks, see our Realtime Streams documentation.

Authentication

All backend functions support both server-side and client-side authentication:

• Server-side: Use your API key (automatically handled in tasks)
• Client-side: Generate a Public Access Token with appropriate scopes

See our authentication guide for detailed information on creating and using tokens.

Quick example

Subscribe to a run:

import { runs, tasks } from "@trigger.dev/sdk";

// Trigger a task
const handle = await tasks.trigger("my-task", { some: "data" });

// Subscribe to real-time updates
for await (const run of runs.subscribeToRun(handle.id)) {
  console.log(`Run ${run.id} status: ${run.status}`);
}