NexJob 0.3.0

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Background jobs for .NET that stay out of your way.

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NexJob is the background job library that .NET deserved from day one.

No expression trees. No lock-in. No paid tiers for Redis. No wrestling with serialization. Just a clean interface, two lines of configuration, and a scheduler that handles the hard parts — retries, concurrency, cron, observability — while you focus on what your job actually does.

public class WelcomeEmailJob : IJob<WelcomeEmailInput>
{
    public async Task ExecuteAsync(WelcomeEmailInput input, CancellationToken ct)
        => await _email.SendAsync(input.UserId, ct);
}

That's your entire job. NexJob handles the rest.

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Why NexJob exists

Every .NET developer has used Hangfire. And every .NET developer has hit the same walls:

• The Redis adapter costs money. So does the MongoDB one.
• async/await is bolted on — Hangfire serializes Task, it doesn't await it.
• The dashboard looks like it was designed in 2014. Because it was.
• There's no concept of priority queues, resource throttling, or payload versioning.
• You can't change workers or pause a queue without restarting the server.
• Schema migrations don't exist — add a column and deployments break.
• The license is LGPL for the core and paid for anything production-worthy.

NexJob was built to solve all of that.

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At a glance

	NexJob	Hangfire
License	MIT	LGPL / paid Pro
async/await native	✅	❌
Priority queues	✅	❌
Resource throttling ([Throttle])	✅	❌
Per-job retry config ([Retry])	✅	❌
Idempotency keys	✅	❌
Job continuations (chaining)	✅	❌
appsettings.json support	✅	❌
Execution windows per queue	✅	❌
Live config without restart	✅	❌
Schema migrations (auto)	✅	❌
Graceful shutdown	✅	❌
Distributed recurring lock	✅	❌
OpenTelemetry built-in	✅	❌
Payload versioning (IJobMigration)	✅	❌
Job progress tracking	✅	✅ paid
Job context (IJobContext)	✅	✅
Job tags	✅	❌
All storage adapters free	✅	❌
In-memory for testing	✅	✅
Cron / recurring jobs	✅	✅
Dashboard	✅ dark mode	✅ legacy

Job progress tracking, IJobContext, and Job tags are new in v0.3.

---

Benchmarks

Measured on Intel Xeon E5-2667 v4 3.20GHz, 16 logical cores, .NET 8.0.25, March 2026. Run dotnet run -c Release --project benchmarks/NexJob.Benchmarks -- --filter '*' --job Short to reproduce. Full raw results in benchmarks/results/README.md.

Enqueue latency — single job, in-memory storage

	NexJob	Hangfire	Difference
Mean latency	9.28 μs	26.63 μs	NexJob is 2.87x faster
Allocated memory	1.67 KB	11.2 KB	NexJob uses 85% less memory

---

Installation

# Core (includes in-memory provider for dev/tests)
dotnet add package NexJob

# Pick your storage — all free, all open-source
dotnet add package NexJob.Postgres
dotnet add package NexJob.SqlServer
dotnet add package NexJob.Redis
dotnet add package NexJob.MongoDB
dotnet add package NexJob.Oracle

# Optional dashboard
dotnet add package NexJob.Dashboard

# Or scaffold a complete starter project
dotnet new install NexJob.Templates
dotnet new nexjob -n MyApp

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Getting started

1 — Define your job

public record SendInvoiceInput(Guid OrderId, string CustomerEmail);

public class SendInvoiceJob : IJob<SendInvoiceInput>
{
    private readonly IInvoiceService _invoices;
    private readonly IEmailService _email;

    public SendInvoiceJob(IInvoiceService invoices, IEmailService email)
    {
        _invoices = invoices;
        _email = email;
    }

    public async Task ExecuteAsync(SendInvoiceInput input, CancellationToken ct)
    {
        var pdf = await _invoices.GenerateAsync(input.OrderId, ct);
        await _email.SendAsync(input.CustomerEmail, pdf, ct);
    }
}

2 — Register

// From appsettings.json (recommended)
builder.Services.AddNexJob(builder.Configuration)
                .AddNexJobJobs(typeof(Program).Assembly);

// Or fluent
builder.Services.AddNexJob(opt =>
{
    opt.UsePostgres(connectionString);
    opt.Workers = 10;
});

3 — Schedule

// Fire and forget
await scheduler.EnqueueAsync<SendInvoiceJob, SendInvoiceInput>(new(orderId, email));

// Delayed
await scheduler.ScheduleAsync<SendInvoiceJob, SendInvoiceInput>(
    new(orderId, email), delay: TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5));

// Recurring (cron)
await scheduler.RecurringAsync<MonthlyReportJob, MonthlyReportInput>(
    id: "monthly-report",
    input: new(DateTime.UtcNow.Month),
    cron: "0 9 1 * *");

// Continuation — runs only after parent succeeds
var jobId = await scheduler.EnqueueAsync<ProcessPaymentJob, PaymentInput>(paymentInput);
await scheduler.ContinueWithAsync<SendReceiptJob, ReceiptInput>(jobId, receiptInput);

// With idempotency key — safe to call multiple times
await scheduler.EnqueueAsync<SendInvoiceJob, SendInvoiceInput>(
    new(orderId, email),
    idempotencyKey: $"invoice-{orderId}");

// With tags — searchable metadata
await scheduler.EnqueueAsync<SendInvoiceJob, SendInvoiceInput>(
    new(orderId, email),
    tags: ["tenant:acme", $"invoice:{invoiceId}"]);

4 — Dashboard

app.UseNexJobDashboard("/jobs");

Open /jobs to see every queue, every job state, every retry — live.

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Configuration via appsettings.json

Every NexJob setting can live in appsettings.json. No code changes to tune behavior across environments.

{
  "NexJob": {
    "Workers": 10,
    "DefaultQueue": "default",
    "MaxAttempts": 5,
    "ShutdownTimeoutSeconds": 30,
    "PollingInterval": "00:00:05",
    "HeartbeatInterval": "00:00:30",
    "HeartbeatTimeout": "00:05:00",
    "Queues": [
      { "Name": "critical", "Workers": 3 },
      { "Name": "default",  "Workers": 5 },
      {
        "Name": "reports",
        "Workers": 2,
        "ExecutionWindow": {
          "StartTime": "22:00",
          "EndTime": "06:00",
          "TimeZone": "America/Sao_Paulo"
        }
      },
      { "Name": "low", "Workers": 1 }
    ],
    "Dashboard": {
      "Path": "/jobs",
      "Title": "MyApp Jobs",
      "RequireAuth": false,
      "PollIntervalSeconds": 3
    }
  }
}

Use different files per environment — no code changes needed:

// appsettings.Development.json
{ "NexJob": { "Workers": 2, "PollingInterval": "00:00:01" } }

---

Execution windows

Restrict queues to specific time windows — without touching a single cron expression.

{
  "NexJob": {
    "Queues": [
      {
        "Name": "reports",
        "ExecutionWindow": {
          "StartTime": "22:00",
          "EndTime": "06:00",
          "TimeZone": "America/Sao_Paulo"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

The reports queue only processes jobs between 10 PM and 6 AM São Paulo time. Windows that cross midnight work naturally: 22:00 → 06:00 runs after 10 PM or before 6 AM.

---

Live configuration via dashboard

Change NexJob behavior at runtime — no restarts, no redeployments.

Open /jobs/settings in the dashboard to:

• Adjust workers — drag a slider, applied instantly across all instances
• Pause a queue — toggle any queue on/off without touching code
• Pause all recurring jobs — one click to freeze all cron-based jobs
• Change polling interval — tune live
• View effective config — see the merged result of appsettings + runtime overrides
• Reset to appsettings — clear all runtime overrides in one click

---

Priority queues

Jobs with Critical priority jump the queue. No workarounds, no separate deployments.

await scheduler.EnqueueAsync<AlertJob, AlertInput>(
    input, priority: JobPriority.Critical);  // Critical → High → Normal → Low

---

Resource throttling

Don't overwhelm external APIs. Declare a limit once, NexJob enforces it across all workers.

[Throttle(resource: "stripe", maxConcurrent: 3)]
public class ChargeCardJob : IJob<ChargeInput> { ... }

[Throttle(resource: "sendgrid", maxConcurrent: 5)]
public class BulkEmailJob : IJob<EmailInput> { ... }

All jobs sharing the same resource name share the same concurrency slot — globally, across all server instances.

---

Per-job retry configuration

Override the global retry policy per job type.

// 5 retries, doubling delay from 30s up to 1h
[Retry(5, InitialDelay = "00:00:30", Multiplier = 2.0, MaxDelay = "01:00:00")]
public class PaymentJob : IJob<PaymentInput> { ... }

// Dead-letter immediately on first failure — no retries
[Retry(0)]
public class WebhookJob : IJob<WebhookInput> { ... }

Global default (when no [Retry] is applied):

Attempt	Delay
1	~16 seconds
2	~1 minute
3	~5 minutes
4	~17 minutes
5	~42 minutes

---

Job context

Inject IJobContext via DI to access runtime information inside any job — no changes to the IJob<TInput> interface required.

public class ImportCsvJob : IJob<ImportCsvInput>
{
    private readonly IJobContext _ctx;
    private readonly ILogger<ImportCsvJob> _logger;

    public ImportCsvJob(IJobContext ctx, ILogger<ImportCsvJob> logger)
    {
        _ctx = ctx;
        _logger = logger;
    }

    public async Task ExecuteAsync(ImportCsvInput input, CancellationToken ct)
    {
        _logger.LogInformation(
            "Job {JobId} — attempt {Attempt}/{Max} — queue {Queue}",
            _ctx.JobId, _ctx.Attempt, _ctx.MaxAttempts, _ctx.Queue);

        await _ctx.ReportProgressAsync(0, "Starting import...", ct);

        var rows = await LoadRowsAsync(input.FilePath, ct);

        await foreach (var row in rows.WithProgress(_ctx, ct))
        {
            await ProcessRowAsync(row, ct);
        }

        await _ctx.ReportProgressAsync(100, "Done.", ct);
    }
}

IJobContext exposes:

• JobId — the current job's identifier
• Attempt — current attempt number (1-based)
• MaxAttempts — total attempts allowed
• Queue — queue the job was fetched from
• RecurringJobId — set when the job was fired by a recurring definition
• Tags — tags attached at enqueue time
• ReportProgressAsync(int percent, string? message, CancellationToken) — updates the dashboard live

---

Job progress tracking

WithProgress automatically reports progress as you iterate — no manual calls needed.

// Works with IAsyncEnumerable
await foreach (var record in dbReader.ReadAllAsync(ct).WithProgress(_ctx, ct))
{
    await ImportAsync(record, ct);
}

// Works with IEnumerable
foreach (var item in items.WithProgress(_ctx))
{
    await ProcessAsync(item, ct);
}

The dashboard shows a live progress bar for any job that reports progress, updated in real time via SSE — no polling, no page refresh.

---

Job tags

Tag jobs at enqueue time to add searchable metadata:

await scheduler.EnqueueAsync<SendInvoiceJob, SendInvoiceInput>(
    input,
    tags: ["tenant:acme", $"order:{orderId}", "region:us-east"]);

Filter by tag in the dashboard or query programmatically:

var jobs = await scheduler.GetJobsByTagAsync("tenant:acme");

---

Schema migrations

NexJob automatically migrates its storage schema on startup. No manual SQL scripts, no deployment steps. Each migration runs in a transaction protected by a distributed advisory lock — safe when multiple instances start simultaneously.

// Nothing to call — migrations run automatically when your app starts
builder.Services.AddNexJob(builder.Configuration);

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Graceful shutdown

When your host receives SIGTERM (Kubernetes rolling deployments, scale-down), NexJob waits for active jobs to complete before stopping.

{
  "NexJob": {
    "ShutdownTimeoutSeconds": 30
  }
}

Jobs still running after the timeout are requeued automatically by the orphan watcher.

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Observability

NexJob emits OpenTelemetry spans and metrics for every job — enqueue, execute, retry, fail. Zero extra configuration if you already have OTEL wired up.

builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
    .WithTracing(t => t.AddSource("NexJob"))
    .WithMetrics(m => m.AddMeter("NexJob"));

Every execution span carries:

nexjob.job_id       = "3f2a8c1d-..."
nexjob.job_type     = "SendInvoiceJob"
nexjob.queue        = "default"
nexjob.attempt      = 1
nexjob.status       = "succeeded"
nexjob.duration_ms  = 142

Metrics: nexjob.jobs.enqueued, nexjob.jobs.succeeded, nexjob.jobs.failed, nexjob.job.duration.

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Payload versioning

Your job inputs will change. NexJob handles it gracefully — no data loss, no broken jobs stuck in the queue.

[SchemaVersion(2)]
public class SendInvoiceJob : IJob<SendInvoiceInputV2> { ... }

// Migration — discovered and applied automatically before execution
public class SendInvoiceMigration : IJobMigration<SendInvoiceInputV1, SendInvoiceInputV2>
{
    public SendInvoiceInputV2 Migrate(SendInvoiceInputV1 old)
        => new(old.OrderId, old.Email, Language: "en-US");
}

Register the migration at startup:

builder.Services.AddJobMigration<SendInvoiceInputV1, SendInvoiceInputV2, SendInvoiceMigration>();

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Health checks

builder.Services.AddHealthChecks()
                .AddNexJob()                        // Healthy / Degraded / Unhealthy
                .AddNexJob(failureThreshold: 100);  // Degraded if > 100 dead-letter jobs

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Testing

The in-memory provider requires zero setup.

services.AddNexJob(opt => opt.UseInMemory());

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Storage providers

All open-source. No license walls. Ever.

Package	Storage	Notes
NexJob	In-memory	Dev and testing only
NexJob.Postgres	PostgreSQL 14+	SELECT FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED + auto-migrations
NexJob.SqlServer	SQL Server 2019+	UPDLOCK READPAST + auto-migrations
NexJob.Redis	Redis 7+	Lua scripts for atomicity
NexJob.MongoDB	MongoDB 6+	Atomic findAndModify
NexJob.Oracle	Oracle 19c+	SKIP LOCKED

Bring your own? Implement IStorageProvider — one interface, full XML docs on every method.

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Configuration reference

builder.Services.AddNexJob(builder.Configuration, opt =>
{
    // Storage — pick one
    opt.UsePostgres(connectionString);
    opt.UseSqlServer(connectionString);
    opt.UseRedis(connectionString);
    opt.UseMongoDB(connectionString, databaseName: "nexjob");
    opt.UseOracle(connectionString);
    opt.UseInMemory();                                    // dev/tests

    // Workers & queues (override appsettings)
    opt.Workers = 10;
    opt.Queues = ["critical", "default", "low"];
    opt.DefaultQueue = "default";

    // Timing
    opt.PollingInterval   = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5);
    opt.HeartbeatInterval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30);
    opt.HeartbeatTimeout  = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5);
    opt.ShutdownTimeout   = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30);

    // Retries
    opt.MaxAttempts = 5;
});

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Roadmap

v0.1.0-alpha  ◆ Core · all storage providers · dashboard · 55 tests
v0.2.0        ◆ Schema migrations · graceful shutdown · [Retry] · distributed lock · 130 tests
v0.3.0        ◆ IJobContext · progress tracking · job tags
v1.0.0        ○ Stable API · production-ready

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Contributing

NexJob is built in the open. Issues, ideas, and PRs are welcome.

git clone git@github.com:oluciano/NexJob.git
cd NexJob
dotnet restore
dotnet test

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a PR.

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License

MIT © 2025 Luciano Azevedo

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Built with obsession over developer experience.

If Hangfire is the past, NexJob is what comes next.

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