Next.js setup guide

This guide can be followed for both App and Pages router as well as Server Actions.

Prerequisites

Setup a project in
Ensure TypeScript is installed
Create a Trigger.dev account
Create a new Trigger.dev project

Initial setup

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:

npx trigger.dev@latest init

It will do a few things:

Log you into the CLI if you’re not already logged in.
Create a trigger.config.ts file in the root of your project.
Ask where you’d like to create the /trigger directory.
Create the /trigger directory with an example task, /trigger/example.[ts/js].

Install the “Hello World” example task when prompted. We’ll use this task to test the setup.

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.

npx trigger.dev@latest dev

Perform a test run using the dashboard

The CLI dev command spits out various useful URLs. Right now we want to visit the Test page .You should see our Example task in the list , select it. Most tasks have a “payload” which you enter in the JSON editor , but our example task doesn’t need any input.Press the “Run test” button .

View your run

Congratulations, you should see the run page which will live reload showing you the current state of the run.

If 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

Instead of running your Next.js app and Trigger.dev dev server in separate terminals, you can run them concurrently. First, add these scripts to your package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "trigger:dev": "npx trigger.dev@latest dev",
    "dev": "npx concurrently --kill-others --names \"next,trigger\" --prefix-colors \"yellow,blue\" \"next dev\" \"npm run trigger:dev\""
  }
}

Then, in your terminal, you can start both servers with a single command:

npm run dev

This will run both your Next.js app and Trigger.dev dev server in the same terminal window, with color-coded output to distinguish between them.

Set your secret key locally

Set your TRIGGER_SECRET_KEY environment variable in your .env.local file if using the Next.js App router or .env file if using Pages router. This key is used to authenticate with Trigger.dev, so you can trigger runs from your Next.js app. Visit the API Keys page in the dashboard and select the DEV secret key. How to find your secret key

For more information on authenticating with Trigger.dev, see the API keys page.

Triggering your task in Next.js

Here are the steps to trigger your task in the Next.js App and Pages router and Server Actions. Alternatively, check out this repo for a full working example of a Next.js app with a Trigger.dev task triggered using a Server Action.

Create a Route Handler

Add a Route Handler by creating a route.ts file (or route.js file) in the app/api directory like this: app/api/hello-world/route.ts.

Add your task

Add this code to your route.ts file which imports your task along with NextResponse to handle the API route response:

app/api/hello-world/route.ts

// Next.js API route support: https://nextjs.org/docs/api-routes/introduction
import type { helloWorldTask } from "@/trigger/example";
import { tasks } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import { NextResponse } from "next/server";

//tasks.trigger also works with the edge runtime
//export const runtime = "edge";

export async function GET() {
  const handle = await tasks.trigger<typeof helloWorldTask>(
    "hello-world",
    "James"
  );

  return NextResponse.json(handle);
}

Trigger your task

Run your Next.js app:

npm run dev

Run the dev server from Step 2. of the Initial Setup section above if it’s not already running:

npx trigger.dev@latest dev

Now visit the URL in your browser to trigger the task. Ensure the port number is the same as the one you’re running your Next.js app on. For example, if you’re running your Next.js app on port 3000, visit:

http://localhost:3000/api/hello-world

You should see the CLI log the task run with a link to view the logs in the dashboard. Trigger.dev CLI showing a successful run

Visit the Trigger.dev dashboard to see your run.

Automatically sync environment variables from your Vercel project (optional)

If you want to automatically sync environment variables from your Vercel project to Trigger.dev, you can add our syncVercelEnvVars build extension to your trigger.config.ts file.

You need to set the VERCEL_ACCESS_TOKEN and VERCEL_PROJECT_ID environment variables, or pass in the token and project ID as arguments to the syncVercelEnvVars build extension. If you’re working with a team project, you’ll also need to set VERCEL_TEAM_ID, which can be found in your team settings. You can find / generate the VERCEL_ACCESS_TOKEN in your Vercel dashboard. Make sure the scope of the token covers the project with the environment variables you want to sync.

trigger.config.ts

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

export default defineConfig({
  project: "<project ref>",
  // Your other config settings...
  build: {
    extensions: [syncVercelEnvVars()],
  },
});

For more information, see our Vercel sync environment variables guide.

Manually add your environment variables (optional)

If you have any environment variables in your tasks, be sure to add them in the dashboard so deployed code runs successfully. In Node.js, these environment variables are accessed in your code using process.env.MY_ENV_VAR. In the sidebar select the “Environment Variables” page, then press the “New environment variable” button. Environment variables page

You can add values for your local dev environment, staging and prod. Environment variables
page

You can also add environment variables in code by following the steps on the Environment Variables page.

Deploying your task to Trigger.dev

For this guide, we’ll manually deploy your task by running the CLI deploy command below. Other ways to deploy are listed in the next section.

npx trigger.dev@latest deploy

Other ways to deploy

Use GitHub Actions to automatically deploy your tasks whenever new code is pushed and when the trigger directory has changes in it. Follow this guide to set up GitHub Actions.

Troubleshooting & extra resources

Revalidation from your Trigger.dev tasks

Revalidation allows you to purge the cache for an ISR route. To revalidate an ISR route from a Trigger.dev task, you have to set up a handler for the revalidate event. This is an API route that you can add to your Next.js app. This handler will run the revalidatePath function from Next.js, which purges the cache for the given path. The handlers are slightly different for the App and Pages router:

Revalidation handler: App Router

If you are using the App router, create a new revalidation route at app/api/revalidate/path/route.ts:

app/api/revalidate/path/route.ts

import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from "next/server";
import { revalidatePath } from "next/cache";

export async function POST(request: NextRequest) {
  try {
    const { path, type, secret } = await request.json();
    // Create a REVALIDATION_SECRET and set it in your environment variables
    if (secret !== process.env.REVALIDATION_SECRET) {
      return NextResponse.json({ message: "Invalid secret" }, { status: 401 });
    }

    if (!path) {
      return NextResponse.json({ message: "Path is required" }, { status: 400 });
    }

    revalidatePath(path, type);

    return NextResponse.json({ revalidated: true });
  } catch (err) {
    console.error("Error revalidating path:", err);
    return NextResponse.json({ message: "Error revalidating path" }, { status: 500 });
  }
}

Revalidation handler: Pages Router

If you are using the Pages router, create a new revalidation route at pages/api/revalidate/path.ts:

pages/api/revalidate/path.ts

import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from "next";

export default async function handler(req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse) {
  try {
    if (req.method !== "POST") {
      return res.status(405).json({ message: "Method not allowed" });
    }

    const { path, secret } = req.body;

    if (secret !== process.env.REVALIDATION_SECRET) {
      return res.status(401).json({ message: "Invalid secret" });
    }

    if (!path) {
      return res.status(400).json({ message: "Path is required" });
    }

    await res.revalidate(path);

    return res.json({ revalidated: true });
  } catch (err) {
    console.error("Error revalidating path:", err);
    return res.status(500).json({ message: "Error revalidating path" });
  }
}

Revalidation task

This task takes a path as a payload and will revalidate the path you specify, using the handler you set up previously.

To run this task locally you will need to set the REVALIDATION_SECRET environment variable in your .env.local file (or .env file if using Pages router).To run this task in production, you will need to set the REVALIDATION_SECRET environment variable in Vercel, in your project settings, and also in your environment variables in the Trigger.dev dashboard.

trigger/revalidate-path.ts

import { logger, task } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

const NEXTJS_APP_URL = process.env.NEXTJS_APP_URL; // e.g. "http://localhost:3000" or "https://my-nextjs-app.vercel.app"
const REVALIDATION_SECRET = process.env.REVALIDATION_SECRET; // Create a REVALIDATION_SECRET and set it in your environment variables

export const revalidatePath = task({
  id: "revalidate-path",
  run: async (payload: { path: string }) => {
    const { path } = payload;

    try {
      const response = await fetch(`${NEXTJS_APP_URL}/api/revalidate/path`, {
        method: "POST",
        headers: {
          "Content-Type": "application/json",
        },
        body: JSON.stringify({
          path: `${NEXTJS_APP_URL}/${path}`,
          secret: REVALIDATION_SECRET,
        }),
      });

      if (response.ok) {
        logger.log("Path revalidation successful", { path });
        return { success: true };
      } else {
        logger.error("Path revalidation failed", {
          path,
          statusCode: response.status,
          statusText: response.statusText,
        });
        return {
          success: false,
          error: `Revalidation failed with status ${response.status}: ${response.statusText}`,
        };
      }
    } catch (error) {
      logger.error("Path revalidation encountered an error", {
        path,
        error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error),
      });
      return {
        success: false,
        error: `Failed to revalidate path due to an unexpected error`,
      };
    }
  },
});

Testing the revalidation task

You can test your revalidation task in the Trigger.dev dashboard on the testing page, using the following payload.

{
  "path": "<path-to-revalidate>" // e.g. "blog"
}

Next.js build failing due to missing API key in GitHub CI

This issue occurs during the Next.js app build process on GitHub CI where the Trigger.dev SDK is expecting the TRIGGER_SECRET_KEY environment variable to be set at build time. Next.js attempts to compile routes and creates static pages, which can cause issues with SDKs that require runtime environment variables. The solution is to mark the relevant pages as dynamic to prevent Next.js from trying to make them static. You can do this by adding the following line to the route file:

export const dynamic = "force-dynamic";

Correctly passing event handlers to React components

An issue can sometimes arise when you try to pass a function directly to the onClick prop. This is because the function may require specific arguments or context that are not available when the event occurs. By wrapping the function call in an arrow function, you ensure that the handler is called with the correct context and any necessary arguments. For example: This works:

<Button onClick={() => myTask()}>Trigger my task</Button>

Whereas this does not work:

<Button onClick={myTask}>Trigger my task</Button>

Learn more about Next.js and Trigger.dev

Walk-through guides from development to deployment