MCPInstall

queues

by vercelDevOps & Cloud

Vercel Queues guidance — durable topics with at-least-once delivery, independent consumer groups, retries, delays, and idempotency keys via @vercel/queue (JS) or vercel-queue (Python). Use when deferring background work, buffering traffic, fanning out events, or choosing between Queues and Workflows.

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Install

Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.

npx skills add https://github.com/vercel/vercel-plugin --skill queues
  1. 01

    Install

    Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.

  2. 02

    Describe the task

    Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads queues automatically when relevant.

  3. 03

    Review the result

    The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.

SKILL.md

The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.

Vercel Queues

You are an expert in Vercel Queues, the durable message topics that power background work and agent events on Vercel.

What It Is

Vercel Queues (public beta) gives you durable, append-only topics. Producers publish JSON messages, and every subscribed consumer group receives every message with at-least-once delivery and automatic retries. New consumer groups can join later and replay non-expired history. Queues is the primitive under Vercel Workflows; use Queues directly when you need control over publishing, consumption, and routing.

  • Topic: a named durable log of messages, created on first publish
  • Consumer group: an independent subscriber that receives every message on a topic
  • Delivery: at-least-once; handlers must be idempotent
  • Retention: 24 hours by default, up to 7 days; delivery can be delayed up to the retention period
  • Modes: push (Vercel invokes your function) or poll (your own workers pull messages from any environment)

Choose Queues or Workflows

NeedUseWhy
Fire-and-forget background job, fan-out, bufferingQueuesDirect publish/consume, independent consumer groups
Multi-step logic with sleep, hooks, or human approvalWorkflows (⤳ skill: workflow)Durable steps and replay built on top of Queues
Scheduled invocation on a cronCron Jobs (⤳ skill: vercel-functions)Time-based trigger, not message-based

Quickstart (Next.js App Router)

Install the SDK:

npm install @vercel/queue

Publish from any route, Server Action, or function:

// app/api/orders/route.ts
import { send } from '@vercel/queue';

export async function POST(request: Request) {
  const body = await request.json();
  const { messageId } = await send('orders', { orderId: body.orderId, action: 'process' });
  return Response.json({ messageId });
}

Consume with a push-mode handler. Messages are acknowledged when the handler returns and retried when it throws:

// app/api/queues/process-order/route.ts
import { handleCallback } from '@vercel/queue';

export const POST = handleCallback(async (message, metadata) => {
  await processOrder(message);
  console.log('processed', metadata.messageId, 'delivery', metadata.deliveryCount);
});

Register the consumer in vercel.json (or vercel.ts) so Vercel routes the topic to that function:

{
  "functions": {
    "app/api/queues/process-order/route.ts": {
      "experimentalTriggers": [{ "type": "queue/v2beta", "topic": "orders" }]
    }
  }
}

Run vercel link and vercel env pull before local development so the SDK can authenticate.

Send Options

await send('orders', payload, {
  region: 'sfo1',            // target a specific region
  retentionSeconds: 3600,    // message TTL; min 60, max 604800 (7 days); default 24 hours
  delaySeconds: 60,          // delay first delivery; max 7 days, capped at the TTL
  idempotencyKey: 'order-123', // duplicates within min(retention, 24 hours) are dropped
  headers: { 'x-trace-id': 'abc-123' },
});

Create a QueueClient when you need defaults, a fixed region, or multiple clients:

// lib/queue.ts
import { QueueClient } from '@vercel/queue';

const queue = new QueueClient({ region: 'sfo1' });
export const { send, handleCallback } = queue;

Consumer Options and Retries

handleCallback(handler, options) accepts:

OptionDefaultNotes
visibilityTimeoutSeconds300How long a message stays in flight; the SDK re-extends the lease while the handler runs
retrytrigger retryAfterSeconds (60s)(error, metadata) => { afterSeconds } | { acknowledge: true } | undefined

Handle poison messages by acknowledging after a delivery-count threshold:

export const POST = handleCallback(processOrder, {
  retry: (error, metadata) => {
    if (metadata.deliveryCount > 5) return { acknowledge: true }; // stop retrying
    return { afterSeconds: Math.min(300, 2 ** metadata.deliveryCount * 5) };
  },
});

metadata includes messageId, deliveryCount, createdAt, expiresAt, topicName, consumerGroup, and region.

For Express, Connect, or Next.js Pages Router handlers use queue.handleNodeCallback(async (message, metadata) => ...) from a QueueClient instance, which takes (req, res).

Other Runtimes and Frameworks

  • Python: vercel-queue publishes and consumes with the same topic model, and FastAPI, Flask, and Django apps can use it; Celery and Dramatiq integrations are documented under the Python backend frameworks.
  • Nitro / Nuxt: declare vercel.queues.triggers in nitro.config.ts and handle messages with the vercel:queue runtime hook; send from @vercel/queue works in any server route.
  • Poll mode: pull messages from your own workers in any environment when push delivery to a Vercel Function does not fit. On Vercel, run an always-on poll-mode consumer as a daemon (⤳ skill: daemons).
  • Payloads: JSON by default; use BufferTransport for binary or StreamTransport for large bodies when constructing a QueueClient.

Errors

@vercel/queue exports typed errors: UnauthorizedError, BadRequestError, MessageNotFoundError, and QueueEmptyError. Duplicate idempotency keys do not throw; the duplicate is silently dropped.

Common Pitfalls

  1. Missing trigger: a handleCallback route with no experimentalTriggers entry never receives messages. Register every consumer in vercel.json/vercel.ts.
  2. Non-idempotent handlers: delivery is at-least-once. Key side effects on metadata.messageId or your own idempotencyKey.
  3. Retrying forever: without a retry policy that acknowledges poison messages or a trigger maxDeliveries cap, a permanently failing message is redelivered until it expires.
  4. Using Queues for multi-step logic: if you need sleep, hooks, or approvals between steps, use Workflows instead of chaining topics by hand.
  5. Local dev without credentials: run vercel link and vercel env pull first; otherwise send() throws Failed to get OIDC token for local development.

References

FAQ

What does the queues skill do?

Vercel Queues guidance — durable topics with at-least-once delivery, independent consumer groups, retries, delays, and idempotency keys via @vercel/queue (JS) or vercel-queue (Python). Use when deferring background work, buffering traffic, fanning out events, or choosing between Queues and Workflows.

How do I install queues?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/vercel/vercel-plugin --skill queues in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/queues/ (personal) or .claude/skills/queues/ (project).

Which AI agents can use queues?

Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.

Is queues safe to install?

No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.

Who maintains queues?

It is published by vercel in vercel/vercel-plugin. It has 133 recorded installs.

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