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Set up with AI

Using an AI coding assistant? Copy this prompt and paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, or any AI tool. It’ll handle the setup for you.

Manual setup

1

Create a Trigger.dev account

Sign up at Trigger.dev Cloud (or self-host). The onboarding flow will guide you through creating your first organization and project.
2

Run the CLI `init` command

The easiest way to get started is to use the CLI. It will add Trigger.dev to your existing project, create a /trigger folder and give you an example task.Run this command in the root of your project to get started:
It will do a few things:
Our Trigger.dev MCP server gives your AI assistant direct access to Trigger.dev tools; search docs, trigger tasks, deploy projects, and monitor runs. We recommend installing it for the best developer experience.
  1. Ask if you want to install the Trigger.dev MCP server for your AI assistant.
  2. Log you into the CLI if you’re not already logged in.
  3. Ask you to select your project.
  4. Install the required SDK packages.
  5. Ask where you’d like to create the /trigger directory and create it with an example task.
  6. Create a trigger.config.ts file in the root of your project.
Install the “Hello World” example task when prompted. We’ll use this task to test the setup.
3

Run the CLI `dev` command

The CLI dev command runs a server for your tasks. It watches for changes in your /trigger directory and communicates with the Trigger.dev platform to register your tasks, perform runs, and send data back and forth.It can also update your @trigger.dev/* packages to prevent version mismatches and failed deploys. You will always be prompted first.
4

Perform a test run using the dashboard

The CLI dev command spits out various useful URLs, including a link to the dashboard. Open it, find your Example task on the Tasks page, and press the “Test” button to open its test page.Most tasks have a “payload” which you enter in the JSON editor, but our example task doesn’t need any input. You can also configure run options, pre-populate the form from recent runs, and save run templates.Press the “Run test” button.Test page
5

View your run

Congratulations, you should see the run page which will live reload showing you the current state of the run.Run pageIf you go back to your terminal you’ll see that the dev command also shows the task status and links to the run log.Terminal showing completed run

Triggering tasks from your app

The test page in the dashboard is great for verifying your task works. To trigger tasks from your own code, you’ll need to set the TRIGGER_SECRET_KEY environment variable. Grab it from the API Keys page in the dashboard and add it to your .env file.
.env
See Triggering for the full guide, or jump straight to framework-specific setup for Next.js, Remix, or Node.js.

Next steps

Building with AI

Build Trigger.dev projects using AI coding assistants

How to trigger your tasks

Trigger tasks from your backend code

Writing tasks

Task options, lifecycle hooks, retries, and queues

Guides and example projects

Framework guides and working example repos