GitHub - egeominotti/bunqueue: ⚡ High-performance job queue for Bun. SQLite persistence, DLQ, cron jobs, S3 backups.

High-performance job queue for Bun. Zero external dependencies.

Documentation · Benchmarks

Why bunqueue?

• BullMQ-compatible API — Same Queue, Worker, QueueEvents
• Zero dependencies — No Redis, no MongoDB
• SQLite persistence — Survives restarts, WAL mode for concurrent access
• Up to 286K ops/sec — Verified benchmarks

When to use bunqueue

Great for:

• Single-server deployments
• Prototypes and MVPs
• Moderate to high workloads (up to 286K ops/sec)
• Teams that want to avoid Redis operational overhead
• Embedded use cases (CLI tools, edge functions, serverless)

Not ideal for:

• Multi-region distributed systems requiring HA
• Workloads that need automatic failover today
• Systems already running Redis with existing infrastructure

Why not just use BullMQ?

If you're already running Redis, BullMQ is great — battle-tested and feature-rich.

bunqueue is for when you don't want to run Redis. SQLite with WAL mode handles surprisingly high throughput for single-node deployments (tested up to 286K ops/sec). You get persistence, priorities, delays, retries, cron jobs, and DLQ — without the operational overhead of another service.

Install

Requires Bun runtime. Node.js is not supported.

Two Modes

bunqueue runs in two modes depending on your architecture:

Embedded Mode

Everything runs in your process. No server, no network, no setup.

import { Queue, Worker } from 'bunqueue/client';

const queue = new Queue('emails', { embedded: true });

const worker = new Worker('emails', async (job) => {
  console.log('Processing:', job.data);
  return { sent: true };
}, { embedded: true });

await queue.add('welcome', { to: 'user@example.com' });

Server Mode (TCP)

Run bunqueue as a standalone server. Multiple workers and producers connect via TCP.

# Start with persistent data
docker run -d -p 6789:6789 -p 6790:6790 \
  -v bunqueue-data:/app/data \
  ghcr.io/egeominotti/bunqueue:latest

Connect from your app:

import { Queue, Worker } from 'bunqueue/client';

const queue = new Queue('tasks', { connection: { host: 'localhost', port: 6789 } });

const worker = new Worker('tasks', async (job) => {
  return { done: true };
}, { connection: { host: 'localhost', port: 6789 } });

await queue.add('process', { data: 'hello' });

Performance

SQLite handles surprisingly high throughput for single-node deployments:

Run bun run bench to verify on your hardware. Full benchmark methodology →

Monitoring

# Start with Prometheus + Grafana
docker compose --profile monitoring up -d

• Grafana: http://localhost:3000 (admin/bunqueue)
• Prometheus: http://localhost:9090

Documentation

Read the full documentation →

• Quick Start
• Queue API
• Worker API
• Server Mode
• Benchmarks
• CLI Reference

License

MIT