BullMQ Queue Monitoring

Implementation evidence

BullMQ Queue Monitoring: from boundary to verified row

Use BullMQ Queue Monitoring at a controlled application boundary, keep the event contract small, and verify a known outcome before building aggregate views.

1
Choose the outcome
BullMQ worker health
2
Define the contract
job_id, job_name, queue_name, and status
3
Instrument the boundary
Use BullMQ's job ID as the logical ID and record attemptsMade separately.
4
Verify the evidence
Exercise a known fixture, then inspect job_completed for one correctly typed terminal row.

Before you start

Prerequisites and boundaries

A server-side TELEMETRY_API_KEY
Stable job names and queue names
Job timestamps preserved across retries

Delivery setup

Install and initialize server-side

Import telemetry-sh in server-only code and initialize it once with process.env.TELEMETRY_API_KEY. Keep ingestion credentials out of browser bundles, client-visible environment variables, source control, logs, and exception messages.

bullmq-install

npm installation

bash

npm install telemetry-sh

1Prepare one reusable server-side delivery client with bounded network behavior.
2Add the outcome event at the success, failure, retry, or timeout boundary.
3Send controlled fixtures and inspect the stored rows before enabling an alert.

Snippet

Start with one structured event

Add this shape where the workflow completes, fails, or retries. Then build the dashboard from real fields.

bullmq

BullMQ Queue Monitoring event

javascript

worker.on("completed", async (job, result) => {
  await telemetry.log("job_completed", {
    job_id: String(job.id),
    job_name: job.name,
    queue_name: worker.name,
    status: "success",
    attempt: job.attemptsMade + 1,
    queue_wait_ms: job.processedOn - job.timestamp,
    duration_ms: job.finishedOn - job.processedOn,
    item_count: result?.itemCount,
  });
});

Event contract

job_id, job_name, queue_name, and status

attempt, queue_wait_ms, duration_ms, and error_type

item_count, worker_name, and release

Implementation checkpoints

Checkpoint 1

Use BullMQ's job ID as the logical ID and record attemptsMade separately.

Checkpoint 2

Derive queue wait from the original enqueue time rather than the retry time.

Checkpoint 3

Never log job.data wholesale because it often contains customer payloads.

Verification

Prove the event arrived

Run this after exercising known success and failure cases. Replace the fallback table name if your final event contract differs from the snippet.

bullmq-verification

BullMQ Queue Monitoring verification query

sql

SELECT *
FROM job_completed
ORDER BY timestamp_utc DESC
LIMIT 20;

Confirm one terminal row per logical outcome, with the expected status, identifiers, units, and UTC time.

Inspect the inferred schema and verify that retries do not change field types or generate a new logical event ID.

Search the stored fields for credentials, raw payloads, prompts, private content, and unbounded error messages.

Exercise a provider timeout, ingestion rejection, and process shutdown before treating the dashboard as complete.

Implementation references

Review the event contract, data-safety guidance, and upstream primary documentation before enabling a new production path.

Queue worker guide Dead-letter growth SQL BullMQ events

Production boundary

Keep the outcome event small and recoverable

This pattern provides

A bounded, SQL-ready outcome beside the upstream workflow.
Stable fields for dashboards, alerts, and cross-event correlation.
A fixture-driven path for validating success, failure, retry, and timeout behavior.

This pattern does not provide

An OTLP exporter, automatic collection pipeline, or replacement for detailed traces and diagnostic logs.
Exactly-once delivery merely because the payload contains an event ID.
Permission to collect raw provider payloads, user content, credentials, or regulated data.

Delivery and idempotency Batching and shutdown Troubleshoot ingestion

Event schema starting points

Review the row grain, emit boundary, required types, privacy classes, example payload, and validation checklist before adapting a query or snippet to production.

Async reliability11 fields