Listening to Task Events

Scheduled tasks — both basic and background — support lifecycle event subscriptions through the .on(), .once(), and .off() methods.

These events let you react to key moments in a task’s lifecycle, such as when it starts, finishes, fails, or is destroyed. Every listener receives a TaskContext object containing detailed metadata about the task and its execution.

Available Events

Event	Payload	Description
task:started	TaskContext	Emitted when the task is started via .start().
task:stopped	TaskContext	Emitted when the task is stopped via .stop().
task:destroyed	TaskContext	Emitted when the task is destroyed via .destroy().
execution:started	TaskContext	Emitted right before the task callback is executed.
execution:finished	TaskContext	Emitted after the task successfully finishes.
execution:failed	TaskContext	Emitted when the task throws an error.
execution:missed	TaskContext	Emitted when a scheduled execution is missed.
execution:overlap	TaskContext	Emitted when a scheduled execution is skipped due to an ongoing one.
execution:maxReached	TaskContext	Emitted when maxExecutions is reached. The task is destroyed.

Example

const task = cron.schedule('* * * * *', async (context) => {
  console.log('Running task at', context.date);
  return 'done';
});

task.on('execution:started', (ctx) => {
  console.log('Execution started at', ctx.date, 'Reason:', ctx.execution?.reason);
});

task.on('execution:finished', (ctx) => {
  console.log('Execution finished. Result:', ctx.execution?.result);
});

task.on('execution:failed', (ctx) => {
  console.error('Execution failed with error:', ctx.execution?.error?.message);
});

task.on('execution:maxReached', (ctx) => {
  console.warn(`Task "${ctx.task?.id}" reached max executions.`);
});

TaskContext Payload

Every event now provides a TaskContext object for consistent access to timing and execution metadata.

Type Definition

export type TaskContext = {
  date: Date;
  dateLocalIso: string;
  triggeredAt: Date;
  task?: ScheduledTask;
  execution?: Execution;
}

Field Descriptions

Field	Type	Description
date	Date	Timestamp when the task was scheduled to run (or did run).
dateLocalIso	string	Human-readable local timestamp string, using the provided timezone.
triggeredAt	Date	Actual time the event was emitted. Useful for debugging latency or drift.
task	ScheduledTask	Reference to the task instance.
execution	Execution?	Execution info if relevant to the event (null for non-execution events).

Execution Type

This structure is embedded in TaskContext.execution and represents a single run of a task:

export type Execution = {
  id: string;
  reason: 'invoked' | 'scheduled';
  startedAt?: Date;
  finishedAt?: Date;
  error?: Error;
  result?: any;
}

Execution Fields

Field	Type	Description
id	string	Unique ID for this execution.
reason	string	Why the task was triggered — either 'invoked' or 'scheduled'.
startedAt	Date?	Time execution started.
finishedAt	Date?	Time execution finished.
error	Error?	Error thrown, if any.
result	any?	Return value of the task if successful.

Notes

• All event listeners receive a TaskContext, even for events like task:stopped or execution:missed.
• Always attach listeners before calling .start() to avoid missing early events.
• Background tasks emit the same events with the same context, relayed from the worker process.