The trigger.config.ts file is used to configure your Trigger.dev project. It is a TypeScript file at the root of your project that exports a default configuration object. Here’s an example:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //Your project ref (you can see it on the Project settings page in the dashboard)
  project: "proj_gtcwttqhhtlasxgfuhxs",
  //The paths for your trigger folders
  dirs: ["./trigger"],
  retries: {
    //If you want to retry a task in dev mode (when using the CLI)
    enabledInDev: false,
    //the default retry settings. Used if you don't specify on a task.
    default: {
      maxAttempts: 3,
      minTimeoutInMs: 1000,
      maxTimeoutInMs: 10000,
      factor: 2,
      randomize: true,
    },
  },
});

The config file handles a lot of things, like:

  • Specifying where your trigger tasks are located using the dirs option.
  • Setting the default retry settings.
  • Configuring OpenTelemetry instrumentations.
  • Customizing the build process.
  • Adding global task lifecycle functions.

The config file is bundled with your project, so code imported in the config file is also bundled, which can have an effect on build times and cold start duration. One important qualification is anything defined in the build config is automatically stripped out of the config file, and imports used inside build config with be tree-shaken out.

​
Lifecycle functions

You can add lifecycle functions to get notified when any task starts, succeeds, or fails using onStart, onSuccess and onFailure:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  onSuccess: async (payload, output, { ctx }) => {
    console.log("Task succeeded", ctx.task.id);
  },
  onFailure: async (payload, error, { ctx }) => {
    console.log("Task failed", ctx.task.id);
  },
  onStart: async (payload, { ctx }) => {
    console.log("Task started", ctx.task.id);
  },
  init: async (payload, { ctx }) => {
    console.log("I run before any task is run");
  },
});

Read more about task lifecycle functions in the tasks overview.

​
Instrumentations

We use OpenTelemetry (OTEL) for our run logs. This means you get a lot of information about your tasks with no effort. But you probably want to add more information to your logs. For example, here’s all the Prisma calls automatically logged:

The run log

Here we add Prisma and OpenAI instrumentations to your trigger.config.ts file.

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { PrismaInstrumentation } from "@prisma/instrumentation";
import { OpenAIInstrumentation } from "@traceloop/instrumentation-openai";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  instrumentations: [new PrismaInstrumentation(), new OpenAIInstrumentation()],
});

There is a huge library of instrumentations you can easily add to your project like this.

Some ones we recommend:

PackageDescription
@opentelemetry/instrumentation-undiciLogs all fetch calls (inc. Undici fetch)
@opentelemetry/instrumentation-fsLogs all file system calls
@opentelemetry/instrumentation-httpLogs all HTTP calls
@prisma/instrumentationLogs all Prisma calls, you need to enable tracing
@traceloop/instrumentation-openaiLogs all OpenAI calls

​
Runtime

We currently only officially support the node runtime, but you can try our experimental bun runtime by setting the runtime option in your config file:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  runtime: "bun",
});

See our Bun guide for more information.

​
Default machine

You can specify the default machine for all tasks in your project:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  defaultMachine: "large-1x",
});

See our machines documentation for more information.

​
Log level

You can set the log level for your project:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  logLevel: "debug",
});

The logLevel only determines which logs are sent to the Trigger.dev instance when using the logger API. All console based logs are always sent.

​
Build configuration

You can customize the build process using the build option:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    // Don't bundle these packages
    external: ["header-generator"],
  },
});

The trigger.config.ts file is included in the bundle, but with the build configuration stripped out. These means any imports only used inside the build configuration are also removed from the final bundle.

​
External

All code is bundled by default, but you can exclude some packages from the bundle using the external option:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    external: ["header-generator"],
  },
});

When a package is excluded from the bundle, it will be added to a dynamically generated package.json file in the build directory. The version of the package will be the same as the version found in your node_modules directory.

Each entry in the external should be a package name, not necessarily the import path. For example, if you want to exclude the ai package, but you are importing ai/rsc, you should just include ai in the external array:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    external: ["ai"],
  },
});

Any packages that install or build a native binary should be added to external, as native binaries cannot be bundled. For example, re2, sharp, and sqlite3 should be added to external.

​
JSX

You can customize the jsx options that are passed to esbuild using the jsx option:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    jsx: {
      // Use the Fragment component instead of React.Fragment
      fragment: "Fragment",
      // Use the h function instead of React.createElement
      factory: "h",
      // Turn off automatic runtime
      automatic: false,
    },
  },
});

By default we enabled esbuild’s automatic JSX runtime which means you don’t need to import React in your JSX files. You can disable this by setting automatic to false.

See the esbuild JSX documentation for more information.

​
Conditions

You can add custom import conditions to your build using the conditions option:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    conditions: ["react-server"],
  },
});

These conditions effect how imports are resolved during the build process. For example, the react-server condition will resolve ai/rsc to the server version of the ai/rsc export.

Custom conditions will also be passed to the node runtime when running your tasks.

​
Extensions

Build extension allow you to hook into the build system and customize the build process or the resulting bundle and container image (in the case of deploying). You can use pre-built extensions by installing the @trigger.dev/build package into your devDependencies, or you can create your own.

​
additionalFiles

Import the additionalFiles build extension and use it in your trigger.config.ts file:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { additionalFiles } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions/core";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    extensions: [
      additionalFiles({ files: ["wrangler/wrangler.toml", "./assets/**", "./fonts/**"] }),
    ],
  },
});

This will copy the files specified in the files array to the build directory. The files array can contain globs. The output paths will match the path of the file, relative to the root of the project.

The root of the project is the directory that contains the trigger.config.ts file

​
additionalPackages

Import the additionalPackages build extension and use it in your trigger.config.ts file:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { additionalPackages } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions/core";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    extensions: [additionalPackages({ packages: ["wrangler"] })],
  },
});

This allows you to include additional packages in the build that are not automatically included via imports. This is useful if you want to install a package that includes a CLI tool that you want to invoke in your tasks via exec. We will try to automatically resolve the version of the package but you can specify the version by using the @ symbol:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    extensions: [additionalPackages({ packages: ["[email protected]"] })],
  },
});

​
emitDecoratorMetadata

If you need support for the emitDecoratorMetadata typescript compiler option, import the emitDecoratorMetadata build extension and use it in your trigger.config.ts file:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { emitDecoratorMetadata } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions/typescript";

export default defineConfig({
  project: "<project ref>",
  build: {
    extensions: [emitDecoratorMetadata()],
  },
});

This is usually required if you are using certain ORMs, like TypeORM, that require this option to be enabled. It’s not enabled by default because there is a performance cost to enabling it.

emitDecoratorMetadata works by hooking into the esbuild bundle process and using the TypeScript compiler API to compile files where we detect the use of decorators. This means you must have emitDecoratorMetadata enabled in your tsconfig.json file, as well as typescript installed in your devDependencies.

​
Prisma

If you are using Prisma, you should use the prisma build extension.

  • Automatically handles copying prisma files to the build directory.
  • Generates the prisma client during the deploy process
  • Optionally will migrate the database during the deploy process
  • Support for TypedSQL and multiple schema files.

You can use it for a simple Prisma setup like this:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { prismaExtension } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions/prisma";

export default defineConfig({
  build: {
    extensions: [
      prismaExtension({
        version: "5.19.0", // optional, we'll automatically detect the version if not provided
        schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
      }),
    ],
  },
});

This does not have any effect when running the dev command, only when running the deploy command.

If you want to also run migrations during the build process, you can pass in the migrate option:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { prismaExtension } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions/prisma";

export default defineConfig({
  project: "<project ref>",
  build: {
    extensions: [
      prismaExtension({
        schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
        migrate: true,
        directUrlEnvVarName: "DATABASE_URL_UNPOOLED", // optional - the name of the environment variable that contains the direct database URL if you are using a direct database URL
      }),
    ],
  },
});

If you have multiple generator statements defined in your schema file, you can pass in the clientGenerator option to specify the prisma-client-js generator, which will prevent other generators from being generated:

If you are using TypedSQL, you’ll need to enable it via the typedSql option:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  project: "<project ref>",
  build: {
    extensions: [
      prismaExtension({
        schema: "prisma/schema.prisma",
        typedSql: true,
      }),
    ],
  },
});

The prismaExtension will inject the DATABASE_URL environment variable into the build process when running the deploy command. This means the CLI needs to have process.env.DATABASE_URL set at the time of calling the deploy command. You can do this via a .env file and passing the --env-file .env option to the deploy command or via shell environment variables. This goes for direct database URLs as well.

These environment variables are only used during the build process and are not embedded in the final image.

​
syncEnvVars

The syncEnvVars build extension replaces the deprecated resolveEnvVars export. Check out our syncEnvVars documentation for more information.

​
audioWaveform

Previously, we installed Audio Waveform in the build image. That’s been moved to a build extension:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { audioWaveform } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions/audioWaveform";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    extensions: [audioWaveform()], // uses verson 1.1.0 of audiowaveform by default
  },
});

​
ffmpeg

You can add the ffmpeg build extension to your build process:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { ffmpeg } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions/core";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    extensions: [ffmpeg()],
  },
});

By default, this will install the version of ffmpeg that is available in the Debian package manager. If you need a specific version, you can pass in the version as an argument:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { ffmpeg } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions/core";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    extensions: [ffmpeg({ version: "6.0-4" })],
  },
});

This extension will also add the FFMPEG_PATH and FFPROBE_PATH to your environment variables, making it easy to use popular ffmpeg libraries like fluent-ffmpeg.

​
esbuild plugins

You can easily add existing or custom esbuild plugins to your build process using the esbuildPlugin extension:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { esbuildPlugin } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions";
import { sentryEsbuildPlugin } from "@sentry/esbuild-plugin";

export default defineConfig({
  project: "<project ref>",
  build: {
    extensions: [
      esbuildPlugin(
        sentryEsbuildPlugin({
          org: process.env.SENTRY_ORG,
          project: process.env.SENTRY_PROJECT,
          authToken: process.env.SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN,
        }),
        // optional - only runs during the deploy command, and adds the plugin to the end of the list of plugins
        { placement: "last", target: "deploy" }
      ),
    ],
  },
});

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aptGet

You can install system packages into the deployed image using using the aptGet extension:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { aptGet } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions/core";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    extensions: [aptGet({ packages: ["ffmpeg"] })],
  },
});

If you want to install a specific version of a package, you can specify the version like this:

import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    extensions: [aptGet({ packages: ["ffmpeg=6.0-4"] })],
  },
});

​
Custom extensions

You can create your own extensions to further customize the build process. Extensions are an object with a name and zero or more lifecycle hooks (onBuildStart and onBuildComplete) that allow you to modify the BuildContext object that is passed to the build process through adding layers. For example, this is how the aptGet extension is implemented:

import { BuildExtension } from "@trigger.dev/core/v3/build";

export type AptGetOptions = {
  packages: string[];
};

export function aptGet(options: AptGetOptions): BuildExtension {
  return {
    name: "aptGet",
    onBuildComplete(context) {
      if (context.target === "dev") {
        return;
      }

      context.logger.debug("Adding apt-get layer", {
        pkgs: options.packages,
      });

      context.addLayer({
        id: "apt-get",
        image: {
          pkgs: options.packages,
        },
      });
    },
  };
}

Instead of creating this function and worrying about types, you can define an extension inline in your trigger.config.ts file:

trigger.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  //..other stuff
  build: {
    extensions: [
      {
        name: "aptGet",
        onBuildComplete(context) {
          if (context.target === "dev") {
            return;
          }

          context.logger.debug("Adding apt-get layer", {
            pkgs: ["ffmpeg"],
          });

          context.addLayer({
            id: "apt-get",
            image: {
              pkgs: ["ffmpeg"],
            },
          });
        },
      },
    ],
  },
});

We’ll be expanding the documentation on how to create custom extensions in the future, but for now you are encouraged to look at the existing extensions in the @trigger.dev/build package for inspiration, which you can see in our repo here

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