Building async applications often means dealing with background tasks. Existing solutions like Celery require separate worker processes and complex configuration. Kew takes a different approach:
- Runs in Your Process: No separate workers to manage - tasks run in your existing async process
- True Async: Native async/await support - no sync/async bridges needed
- Precise Control: Semaphore-based concurrency ensures exact worker limits
- Simple Setup: Just Redis and a few lines of code to get started
- Fast: Single-roundtrip atomic task submission via Lua scripts
Kew manages task execution using a combination of Redis for persistence and asyncio for processing:
graph LR A[Application] -->|Submit Task| B[Task Queue] B -->|Semaphore Control| C[Worker Pool] C -->|Execute Task| D[Task Processing] D -->|Success| E[Complete] D -->|Error| F[Circuit Breaker] F -->|Retry/Reset| B style A fill:#f9f,stroke:#333 style B fill:#bbf,stroke:#333 style C fill:#bfb,stroke:#333 style D fill:#fbb,stroke:#333 Tasks flow through several states with built-in error handling:
stateDiagram-v2 [*] --> Submitted: Task Created Submitted --> Queued: Priority Assignment Queued --> Processing: Worker Available Processing --> Completed: Success Processing --> Retry: Error (retries remaining) Retry --> Queued: Backoff Delay Processing --> Failed: Error (no retries) Failed --> CircuitOpen: Multiple Failures CircuitOpen --> Queued: Circuit Reset Completed --> [*] - Install Kew:
pip install kew- Create a simple task processor:
import asyncio from kew import TaskQueueManager, QueueConfig, QueuePriority async def process_order(order_id: str): # Simulate order processing await asyncio.sleep(1) return f"Order {order_id} processed" async def main(): # Initialize queue manager manager = TaskQueueManager(redis_url="redis://localhost:6379") await manager.initialize() # Create processing queue await manager.create_queue(QueueConfig( name="orders", max_workers=4, # Only 4 concurrent tasks max_size=1000 )) # Submit some tasks tasks = [] for i in range(10): task = await manager.submit_task( task_id=f"order-{i}", queue_name="orders", task_type="process_order", task_func=process_order, priority=QueuePriority.MEDIUM, order_id=str(i) ) tasks.append(task) # Check results # Small delay to allow tasks to complete in this simple example await asyncio.sleep(1.2) for task in tasks: status = await manager.get_task_status(task.task_id) print(f"{task.task_id}: {status.result}") if __name__ == "__main__": asyncio.run(main())# Strictly enforce 4 concurrent tasks max await manager.create_queue(QueueConfig( name="api_calls", max_workers=4 # Guaranteed not to exceed ))# High priority queue for urgent tasks await manager.create_queue(QueueConfig( name="urgent", priority=QueuePriority.HIGH )) # Lower priority for batch processing await manager.create_queue(QueueConfig( name="batch", priority=QueuePriority.LOW ))await manager.create_queue(QueueConfig( name="flaky_api", max_workers=4, max_retries=3, # Retry up to 3 times on failure retry_delay=1.0, # Base delay of 1 second (doubles each retry) )) # Tasks that fail will be re-queued automatically: # Attempt 1: immediate # Attempt 2: +1s delay # Attempt 3: +2s delay # Attempt 4: +4s delay (or fail permanently)from datetime import datetime, timedelta # Defer by a duration await manager.submit_task( task_id="send-reminder", queue_name="emails", task_type="reminder", task_func=send_reminder, priority=QueuePriority.MEDIUM, _defer_by=300.0, # Execute 5 minutes from now user_id="abc123", ) # Defer until a specific time await manager.submit_task( task_id="morning-report", queue_name="reports", task_type="report", task_func=generate_report, priority=QueuePriority.LOW, _defer_until=datetime(2025, 1, 15, 9, 0, 0), # Run at 9 AM )async def on_start(task_info): print(f"Task {task_info.task_id} started") async def on_complete(task_info): await metrics.record("task.completed", task_info.task_id) async def on_fail(task_info, error): await alert_channel.send(f"Task {task_info.task_id} failed: {error}") manager = TaskQueueManager( redis_url="redis://localhost:6379", on_task_start=on_start, on_task_complete=on_complete, on_task_fail=on_fail, )Redis-backed per-queue circuit breaker tracks consecutive failures and temporarily opens the circuit to protect downstreams. Auto-resets via key expiry.
await manager.create_queue(QueueConfig( name="external_api", max_workers=4, max_circuit_breaker_failures=5, # Open after 5 consecutive failures circuit_breaker_reset_timeout=30, # Auto-close after 30 seconds ))from kew.exceptions import QueueProcessorError await manager.create_queue(QueueConfig( name="bounded_queue", max_workers=2, max_size=100, # Reject submissions beyond 100 queued tasks )) try: await manager.submit_task(...) except QueueProcessorError: # Queue is full - apply backpressure to caller return {"status": "busy", "retry_after": 5}Submit thousands of tasks in a single Redis round-trip for maximum throughput:
tasks = [ { "task_id": f"order-{i}", "task_type": "process", "task_func": process_order, "priority": QueuePriority.MEDIUM, "kwargs": {"order_id": i}, } for i in range(1000) ] # Single call, batched internally in chunks of 50 results = await manager.submit_tasks("orders", tasks) # ~33,000 tasks/sec β 12x faster than sequential submit_task()# Check task status status = await manager.get_task_status("task-123") print(f"Status: {status.status}") print(f"Result: {status.result}") print(f"Error: {status.error}") print(f"Retries: {status.retry_count}") # Get all currently running tasks ongoing = await manager.get_ongoing_tasks() # Monitor queue health queue_status = await manager.get_queue_status("api_calls") print(f"Active Tasks: {queue_status['current_workers']}") print(f"Circuit Breaker: {queue_status['circuit_breaker_status']}")from fastapi import FastAPI from kew import TaskQueueManager, QueueConfig, QueuePriority app = FastAPI() manager = TaskQueueManager() @app.on_event("startup") async def startup(): await manager.initialize() await manager.create_queue(QueueConfig( name="emails", max_workers=2, max_retries=3, # Retry failed email sends retry_delay=5.0, # 5s base backoff )) @app.post("/signup") async def signup(email: str): # Handle signup immediately user = await create_user(email) # Queue welcome email for background processing await manager.submit_task( task_id=f"welcome-{user.id}", queue_name="emails", task_type="send_welcome_email", task_func=send_welcome_email, priority=QueuePriority.MEDIUM, user_id=user.id ) return {"status": "success"}Single-process enqueue throughput on Redis 7, measured in CI:
| Metric | kew v0.2.1 | arq v0.27.0 | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean enqueue latency | 0.67ms | 0.62ms | arq |
| Sequential throughput | ~1,525/sec | ~1,585/sec | arq |
| Concurrent (gather) | ~3,148/sec | N/A | kew |
Batch (submit_tasks()) | ~16,202/sec | N/A | kew 10x |
| End-to-end throughput | ~351/sec | N/A* | kew |
*arq requires separate worker processes; kew runs tasks in-process.
Numbers from GitHub Actions on
ubuntu-latest(2026-02-16).
| Version | Throughput | vs v0.1.4 |
|---|---|---|
| v0.1.4 | ~850/sec | 1x |
| v0.1.8 | ~1,550/sec | 1.8x |
| v0.2.0 | ~2,990/sec | 3.5x |
| v0.2.1 (sequential) | ~1,525/sec | 1.8x |
| v0.2.1 (concurrent) | ~3,148/sec | 3.7x |
| v0.2.1 (batch) | ~16,202/sec | 19.1x |
- v0.2.1: Lock-free submit (Lua atomicity), batch Lua script for N tasks in 1 RTT
- v0.2.0: Atomic Lua script, binary Redis, per-queue locks, semaphore reorder, active task SET
- v0.1.8: Redis pipelining & batching
See the full changelog in CHANGELOG.md.
| Version | Highlights |
|---|---|
| 0.2.1 (current) | Batch submit API (12x arq), lock-free submit, concurrent-safe |
| 0.2.0 | Atomic Lua submit, retries, deferred execution, lifecycle hooks, Redis circuit breaker |
| 0.1.8 | Redis pipelining & batching, 3.4x faster task submission |
| 0.1.7 | Multi-process worker support, Redis task storage (@Ahmad-cercli) |
| 0.1.5 | Faster task pickup, reliable shutdown, Redis 7 support |
| 0.1.4 | Stable async queues, priorities, circuit breakers |
- Batch submit API for high-throughput ingestion (v0.2.1)
- Lock-free atomic submit via Lua scripts (v0.2.1)
- Retry with configurable exponential backoff (v0.2.0)
- Deferred/scheduled task execution (v0.2.0)
- Lifecycle hooks: on_task_start, on_task_complete, on_task_fail (v0.2.0)
- Redis-backed circuit breaker with TTL auto-reset (v0.2.0)
- Binary Redis connection for zero-overhead payloads (v0.2.0)
- Active task set for O(1) ongoing task queries (v0.2.0)
- Redis pipelining & batching (v0.1.8)
- Distributed workers with coordination (v0.1.7 - @Ahmad-cercli)
- Dead-letter queue for permanently failed tasks
- Pause/resume controls and basic admin/health endpoints
- Metrics and observability (Prometheus/OpenTelemetry)
- Rate limiting per queue and burst control
- CLI tooling for inspection and maintenance
- Web dashboard for task monitoring
manager = TaskQueueManager( redis_url="redis://username:password@hostname:6379/0", cleanup_on_start=True # Optional: clean stale tasks )Tasks expire after 24 hours by default. This value is currently not configurable.
Kew provides comprehensive error handling:
TaskAlreadyExistsError: Task ID already in use (atomic duplicate detection)TaskNotFoundError: Task doesn't existQueueNotFoundError: Queue not configuredQueueProcessorError: Task processing failed or queue is full
try: await manager.submit_task(...) except TaskAlreadyExistsError: # Handle duplicate task except QueueProcessorError as e: # Handle processing error or queue full print(f"Task failed: {e}")We welcome contributions! Please check our Contributing Guide for details.
Thanks to these wonderful people for their contributions:
| Contributor | Contribution |
|---|---|
| @justrach | Creator & Maintainer |
| @Ahmad-cercli | Multi-process worker support with Redis task storage (PR #5) |
Want to see your name here? Check out the Contributing Guide!
MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
