Edge Function Background Orchestration

Orchestrates long-running Edge Function work via waitUntil, pg_cron, and pgmq patterns.

Overview

This tile provides two patterns for background processing in Supabase Edge Functions. Light tasks use EdgeRuntime.waitUntil(promise) to fire-and-forget while returning an immediate 200 OK. Massive async workloads are decomposed into pgmq messages, discovered by pg_cron jobs, and processed outside the Edge Function request lifecycle.

Reference

waitUntil Pattern

Deno.serve(async (req) => {
  const payload = await req.json();
  EdgeRuntime.waitUntil(doBackgroundWork(payload));
  return new Response(JSON.stringify({ status: "accepted" }), { status: 200 });
});

pgmq + pg_cron Pattern

-- Create queue
SELECT pgmq.create('my_tasks');

-- Send message
SELECT pgmq.send('my_tasks', '{"action":"process","id":123}'::jsonb);

-- Cron job to consume (every 30 seconds)
SELECT cron.schedule('consume-my-tasks', '30 seconds',
  $$SELECT pgmq.delete('my_tasks', msg_id)
    FROM pgmq.read('my_tasks', 30, 5) WHERE processed = true$$
);

Workload Classification

Dependencies

• supabase-mcp-verification -- root prerequisite.
• pgmq extension -- required for massive async pattern.
• pg_cron extension -- required for scheduled queue consumption.

Composition Position

• Stage: execution-runtime
• Priority: HIGH
• Executes after database schema and extension tiles are applied.
• MUST run before any tile that defines webhook handlers or async pipelines.