Just another Cron alternative with a Web UI, but with much more capabilities
It runs DAGs (Directed acyclic graph) defined in a simple YAML format.
Dagu is a tool for scheduling and running tasks based on a directed acyclic graph (DAG). It allows you to define dependencies between commands and represent them as a single DAG, schedule the execution of DAGs with Cron expressions, and natively support running Docker containers, making HTTP requests, and executing commands over SSH.
- Single binary file installation
- Declarative YAML format for defining DAGs
- Web UI for visualizing, managing, and rerunning pipelines
- No programming required, making it easy to use and ideal for small projects
- Self-contained, with no need for a DBMS or cloud service
- Highlights
- Contents
- Getting started
- Motivation
- Why Not Use an Existing Workflow Scheduler Like Airflow?
- How it Works
- Installation
- ️Quick Start Guide
- Command Line Interface
- Web Interface
- YAML Format
- Minimal DAG Definition
- Running Arbitrary Code Snippets
- Defining Environment Variables
- Defining and Using Parameters
- Using Command Substitution
- Adding Conditional Logic
- Setting Environment Variables with Standard Output
- Redirecting Stdout and Stderr
- Adding Lifecycle Hooks
- Repeating a Task at Regular Intervals
- Other Available Fields
- Executors
- Configuration Options
- Sending Email Notifications
- Base Configuration for all DAGs
- Scheduler
- Running with Docker Compose
- Building Docker Image
- REST API Interface
- Building Binary From Source Code
- FAQ
- Contributions
- License
To get started with Dagu, see the installation instructions below and then check out the ️Quick start guide.
Legacy systems often have complex and implicit dependencies between jobs. When there are hundreds of cron jobs on a server, it can be difficult to keep track of these dependencies and to determine which job to rerun if one fails. It can also be a hassle to SSH into a server to view logs and manually rerun shell scripts one by one. Dagu aims to solve these problems by allowing you to explicitly visualize and manage pipeline dependencies as a DAG, and by providing a web UI for checking dependencies, execution status, and logs and for rerunning or stopping jobs with a simple mouse click.
There are many existing tools such as Airflow, Prefect, and Temporal, but many of these require you to write code in a programming language like Python to define your DAG. For systems that have been in operation for a long time, there may already be complex jobs with hundreds of thousands of lines of code written in languages like Perl or Shell Script. Adding another layer of complexity on top of these codes can reduce maintainability. Dagu was designed to be easy to use, self-contained, and require no coding, making it ideal for small projects.
Dagu is a single command line tool that uses the local file system to store data, so no database management system or cloud service is required. DAGs are defined in a declarative YAML format, and existing programs can be used without modification.
You can install Dagu quickly using Homebrew or by downloading the latest binary from the Releases page on GitHub.
brew install yohamta/tap/dagu
Upgrade to the latest version:
brew upgrade yohamta/tap/dagu
curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yohamta/dagu/main/scripts/downloader.sh | bash
docker run \
--rm \
-p 8080:8080 \
-v $HOME/.dagu/dags:/home/dagu/.dagu/dags \
-v $HOME/.dagu/data:/home/dagu/.dagu/data \
-v $HOME/.dagu/logs:/home/dagu/.dagu/logs \
yohamta/dagu:latest
Download the latest binary from the Releases page and place it in your $PATH
(e.g. /usr/local/bin
).
Start the server with dagu server
and browse to http://127.0.0.1:8080
to explore the Web UI.
Create a DAG by clicking the New DAG
button on the top page of the web UI. Input example
in the dialog.
Note: DAG (YAML) files will be placed in ~/.dagu/dags
by default. See Configuration Options for more details.
Go to the SPEC
Tab and hit the Edit
button. Copy & Paste this example YAML and click the Save
button.
You can execute the example by pressing the Start
button.
Note: Leave the parameter field in the dialog blank and press OK.
dagu start [--params=<params>] <file>
- Runs the DAGdagu status <file>
- Displays the current status of the DAGdagu retry --req=<request-id> <file>
- Re-runs the specified DAG rundagu stop <file>
- Stops the DAG execution by sending TERM signalsdagu restart <file>
- Restarts the current running DAGdagu dry [--params=<params>] <file>
- Dry-runs the DAGdagu server [--host=<host>] [--port=<port>] [--dags=<path/to/the DAGs directory>]
- Launches the Dagu web UI serverdagu scheduler [--dags=<path/to/the DAGs directory>]
- Starts the scheduler processdagu version
- Shows the current binary version
The --config=<config>
option is available to all commands. It allows to specify different dagu configuration for the commands. Which enables you to manage multiple dagu process in a single instance. See Configuration Options for more details.
For example:
dagu server --config=~/.dagu/dev.yaml
dagu scheduler --config=~/.dagu/dev.yaml
-
DAGs: It shows all DAGs and the real-time status.
-
DAG Details: It shows the real-time status, logs, and DAG configurations. You can edit DAG configurations on a browser.
You can switch to the vertical graph with the button on the top right corner.
-
Search DAGs: It greps given text across all DAGs.
-
Execution History: It shows past execution results and logs.
-
DAG Execution Log: It shows the detail log and standard output of each execution and step.
To view all examples, visit this page.
The minimal DAG definition is as simple as follows.
steps:
- name: step 1
command: echo hello
- name: step 2
command: echo world
depends:
- step 1
script
field provides a way to run arbitrary snippets of code in any language.
steps:
- name: step 1
command: "bash"
script: |
cd /tmp
echo "hello world" > hello
cat hello
output: RESULT
- name: step 2
command: echo ${RESULT} # hello world
depends:
- step 1
You can define environment variables and refer to them using the env
field.
env:
- SOME_DIR: ${HOME}/batch
- SOME_FILE: ${SOME_DIR}/some_file
steps:
- name: some task in some dir
dir: ${SOME_DIR}
command: python main.py ${SOME_FILE}
You can define parameters using the params
field and refer to each parameter as $1, $2, etc. Parameters can also be command substitutions or environment variables. It can be overridden by the --params=
parameter of the start
command.
params: param1 param2
steps:
- name: some task with parameters
command: python main.py $1 $2
Named parameters are also available as follows.
params: ONE=1 TWO=`echo 2`
steps:
- name: some task with parameters
command: python main.py $ONE $TWO
You can use command substitution in field values. I.e., a string enclosed in backquotes (`
) is evaluated as a command and replaced with the result of standard output.
env:
TODAY: "`date '+%Y%m%d'`"
steps:
- name: hello
command: "echo hello, today is ${TODAY}"
Sometimes you have parts of a DAG that you only want to run under certain conditions. You can use the preconditions
field to add conditional branches to your DAG.
For example, the task below only runs on the first date of each month.
steps:
- name: A monthly task
command: monthly.sh
preconditions:
- condition: "`date '+%d'`"
expected: "01"
If you want the DAG to continue to the next step regardless of the step's conditional check result, you can use the continueOn
field:
steps:
- name: A monthly task
command: monthly.sh
preconditions:
- condition: "`date '+%d'`"
expected: "01"
continueOn:
skipped: true
The output
field can be used to set an environment variable with standard output. Leading and trailing space will be trimmed automatically. The environment variables can be used in subsequent steps.
steps:
- name: step 1
command: "echo foo"
output: FOO # will contain "foo"
The stdout
field can be used to write standard output to a file.
steps:
- name: create a file
command: "echo hello"
stdout: "/tmp/hello" # the content will be "hello\n"
The stderr
field allows to redirect stderr to other file without writing to the normal log file.
steps:
- name: output error file
command: "echo error message >&2"
stderr: "/tmp/error.txt"
It is often desirable to take action when a specific event happens, for example, when a DAG fails. To achieve this, you can use handlerOn
fields.
handlerOn:
failure:
command: notify_error.sh
exit:
command: cleanup.sh
steps:
- name: A task
command: main.sh
If you want a task to repeat execution at regular intervals, you can use the repeatPolicy
field. If you want to stop the repeating task, you can use the stop
command to gracefully stop the task.
steps:
- name: A task
command: main.sh
repeatPolicy:
repeat: true
intervalSec: 60
This section provides a comprehensive list of available fields that can be used to configure DAGs and their steps in detail. Each field serves a specific purpose, enabling granular control over how the DAG runs. The fields include:
name
: The name of the DAG, which is optional. The default name is the name of the file.description
: A brief description of the DAG.schedule
: The execution schedule of the DAG in Cron expression format.group
: The group name to organize DAGs, which is optional.tags
: Free tags that can be used to categorize DAGs, separated by commas.env
: Environment variables that can be accessed by the DAG and its steps.logDir
: The directory where the standard output is written. The default value is${DAGU_HOME}/logs/dags
.restartWaitSec
: The number of seconds to wait after the DAG process stops before restarting it.histRetentionDays
: The number of days to retain execution history (not for log files).delaySec
: The interval time in seconds between steps.maxActiveRuns
: The maximum number of parallel running steps.params
: The default parameters that can be referred to by$1
,$2
, and so on.preconditions
: The conditions that must be met before a DAG or step can run.mailOn
: Whether to send an email notification when a DAG or step fails or succeeds.MaxCleanUpTimeSec
: The maximum time to wait after sending a TERM signal to running steps before killing them.handlerOn
: The command to execute when a DAG or step succeeds, fails, cancels, or exits.steps
: A list of steps to execute in the DAG.
Each step can have its own set of configurations, including:
name
: The name of the step.description
: A brief description of the step.dir
: The working directory for the step.command
: The command and parameters to execute.stdout
: The file to which the standard output is written.output
: The variable to which the result is written.script
: The script to execute.signalOnStop
: The signal name (e.g.,SIGINT
) to be sent when the process is stopped.mailOn
: Whether to send an email notification when the step fails or succeeds.continueOn
: Whether to continue to the next step, regardless of whether the step failed or not or the preconditions are met or not.retryPolicy
: The retry policy for the step.repeatPolicy
: The repeat policy for the step.preconditions
: The conditions that must be met before a step can run.
In addition, a global configuration file, $DAGU_HOME/config.yaml
, can be used to gather common settings, such as logDir or env.
Note: If DAGU_HOME
environment variable is not set, the default path is $HOME/.dagu/config.yaml
.
Example:
name: DAG name
description: run a DAG
schedule: "0 * * * *"
group: DailyJobs
tags: example
env:
- LOG_DIR: ${HOME}/logs
- PATH: /usr/local/bin:${PATH}
logDir: ${LOG_DIR}
restartWaitSec: 60
histRetentionDays: 3
delaySec: 1
maxActiveRuns: 1
params: param1 param2
preconditions:
- condition: "`echo $2`"
expected: "param2"
mailOn:
failure: true
success: true
MaxCleanUpTimeSec: 300
handlerOn:
success:
command: "echo succeed"
failure:
command: "echo failed"
cancel:
command: "echo canceled"
exit:
command: "echo finished"
steps:
- name: some task
description: some task
dir: ${HOME}/logs
command: bash
stdout: /tmp/outfile
ouptut: RESULT_VARIABLE
script: |
echo "any script"
signalOnStop: "SIGINT"
mailOn:
failure: true
success: true
continueOn:
failure: true
skipped: true
retryPolicy:
limit: 2
intervalSec: 5
repeatPolicy:
repeat: true
intervalSec: 60
preconditions:
- condition: "`echo $1`"
expected: "param1"
The executor
field provides different execution methods for each step. These executors are responsible for executing the commands or scripts specified in the command or script field of the step. Below are the available executors and their use cases.
In the examples directory, you can find a collection of sample DAGs that demonstrate how to use executors.
Note: It requires Docker daemon running on the host.
The docker
executor allows us to run Docker containers instead of bare commands. This can be useful for running commands in isolated environments or for reproducibility purposes.
In the example below, it pulls and runs Deno's docker image and prints 'Hello World'.
steps:
- name: deno_hello_world
executor:
type: docker
config:
image: "denoland/deno:1.10.3"
autoRemove: true
command: run https://examples.deno.land/hello-world.ts
Example Log output:
To see more configurations, visit this page.
The http
executor allows us to make an arbitrary HTTP request. This can be useful for interacting with web services or APIs.
steps:
- name: send POST request
command: POST https://foo.bar.com
executor:
type: http
config:
timeout: 10,
headers:
Authorization: "Bearer $TOKEN"
silent: true # If silent is true, it outputs response body only.
query:
key: "value"
body: "post body"
The mail
executor can be used to send email. This can be useful for sending notifications or alerts.
Example:
smtp:
host: "smtp.foo.bar"
port: "587"
username: "<username>"
password: "<password>"
steps:
- name: step1
executor:
type: mail
config:
to: <to address>
from: <from address>
subject: "Urgent Request: Help Me Find My Sanity"
message: |
I'm in a bit of a pickle.
I seem to have lost my sanity somewhere between my third cup of coffee
and my fourth Zoom meeting of the day.
If you see it lying around, please let me know.
Thanks for your help!
Best,
The jq
executor can be used to transform, query, and format JSON. This can be useful for working with JSON data in pipelines or for data processing.
Query Example:
steps:
- name: run query
executor: jq
command: '{(.id): .["10"].b}'
script: |
{"id": "sample", "10": {"b": 42}}
output:
{
"sample": 42
}
Formatting JSON:
steps:
- name: format json
executor: jq
script: |
{"id": "sample", "10": {"b": 42}}
output:
{
"10": {
"b": 42
},
"id": "sample"
}
The jq
result can be used in following steps via Output or Stdout Redirection.
The ssh
executor allows us to execute commands on remote hosts over SSH.
steps:
- name: step1
executor:
type: ssh
config:
user: dagu
ip: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
port: 22
key: /Users/dagu/.ssh/private.pem
command: /usr/sbin/ifconfig
The following environment variables can be used to configure the Dagu. Default values are provided in the parentheses:
DAGU_HOST
(127.0.0.1
): The host to bind the server to.DAGU_PORT
(8080
): The port to bind the server to.DAGU_DAGS
($DAGU_HOME/dags
): The directory containing the DAGs.DAGU_COMMAND
(dagu
): The command used to start the application.DAGU_IS_BASIC_AUTH
(0
): Set to 1 to enable basic authentication.DAGU_BASIC_AUTH_USERNAME
(""
): The username to use for basic authentication.DAGU_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD
(""
): The password to use for basic authentication.DAGU_LOG_DIR
($DAGU_HOME/logs
): The directory where logs will be stored.DAGU_DATA_DIR
($DAGU_HOME/data
): The directory where application data will be stored.DAGU_SUSPEND_FLAGS_DIR
($DAGU_HOME/suspend
): The directory containing DAG suspend flags.DAGU_ADMIN_LOG_DIR
($DAGU_HOME/logs/admin
): The directory where admin logs will be stored.DAGU_BASE_CONFIG
($DAGU_HOME/config.yaml
): The path to the base configuration file.DAGU_NAVBAR_COLOR
(""
): The color to use for the navigation bar. E.g.,red
or#ff0000
.DAGU_NAVBAR_TITLE
(Dagu
): The title to display in the navigation bar. E.g.,Dagu - PROD
orDagu - DEV
Note: All of the above environment variables are optional. If not set, the default values shown above will be used. If DAGU_HOME
environment variable is not set, the default value is $HOME/.dagu
.
Email notifications can be sent when a DAG finished with an error or successfully. To do so, you can set the smtp
field and related fields in the DAG specs. You can use any email delivery services (e.g. Sendgrid, Mailgun, etc).
# Eamil notification settings
mailOn:
failure: true
success: true
# SMTP server settings
smtp:
host: "smtp.foo.bar"
port: "587"
username: "<username>"
password: "<password>"
# Error mail configuration
errorMail:
from: "[email protected]"
to: "[email protected]"
prefix: "[Error]"
# Info mail configuration
infoMail:
from: "[email protected]"
to: "[email protected]"
prefix: "[Info]"
If you want to use the same settings for all DAGs, set them to the base configuration.
Creating a base configuration (default path: ~/.dagu/config.yaml
) is a convenient way to organize shared settings among all DAGs. The path to the base configuration file can be configured. See Configuration Options for more details.
# directory path to save logs from standard output
logDir: /path/to/stdout-logs/
# history retention days (default: 30)
histRetentionDays: 3
# Eamil notification settings
mailOn:
failure: true
success: true
# SMTP server settings
smtp:
host: "smtp.foo.bar"
port: "587"
username: "<username>"
password: "<password>"
# Error mail configuration
errorMail:
from: "[email protected]"
to: "[email protected]"
prefix: "[Error]"
# Info mail configuration
infoMail:
from: "[email protected]"
to: "[email protected]"
prefix: "[Info]"
To run DAGs automatically, you need to run the dagu scheduler
process on your system.
You can specify the schedule with cron expression in the schedule
field in the config file as follows.
schedule: "5 4 * * *" # Run at 04:05.
steps:
- name: scheduled job
command: job.sh
Or you can set multiple schedules.
schedule:
- "30 7 * * *" # Run at 7:30
- "0 20 * * *" # Also run at 20:00
steps:
- name: scheduled job
command: job.sh
If you want to start and stop a long-running process on a fixed schedule, you can define start
and stop
times as follows. At the stop time, each step's process receives a stop signal.
schedule:
start: "0 8 * * *" # starts at 8:00
stop: "0 13 * * *" # stops at 13:00
steps:
- name: scheduled job
command: job.sh
You can also set multiple start/stop schedules. In the following example, the process will run from 0:00-5:00 and 12:00-17:00.
schedule:
start:
- "0 0 * * *"
- "12 0 * * *"
stop:
- "5 0 * * *"
- "17 0 * * *"
steps:
- name: some long-process
command: main.sh
If you want to restart a DAG process on a fixed schedule, the restart
field is also available. At the restart time, the DAG execution will be stopped and restarted again.
schedule:
start: "0 8 * * *" # starts at 8:00
restart: "0 12 * * *" # restarts at 12:00
stop: "0 13 * * *" # stops at 13:00
steps:
- name: scheduled job
command: job.sh
The wait time after the job is stopped before restart can be configured in the DAG definition as follows. The default value is 0
(zero).
restartWaitSec: 60 # Wait 60s after the process is stopped, then restart the DAG.
steps:
- name: step1
command: python some_app.py
The easiest way to make sure the process is always running on your system is to create the script below and execute it every minute using cron (you don't need root
account in this way).
#!/bin/bash
process="dagu scheduler"
command="/usr/bin/dagu scheduler"
if ps ax | grep -v grep | grep "$process" > /dev/null
then
exit
else
$command &
fi
exit
Set the dags
field to specify the directory of the DAGs.
dags: <the location of DAG configuration files> # default: (~/.dagu/dags)
To automate workflows based on cron expressions, it is necessary to run both the admin server and scheduler process. Here is an example docker-compose.yml
setup for running Dagu using Docker Compose.
version: "3.9"
services:
# init container updates permission
init:
image: "yohamta/dagu:latest"
user: root
volumes:
- dagu:/home/dagu/.dagu
command: chown -R dagu /home/dagu/.dagu/
# admin web server process
server:
image: "yohamta/dagu:latest"
environment:
- DAGU_PORT=8080
- DAGU_DAGS=/home/dagu/.dagu/dags
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "8080:8080"
volumes:
- dagu:/home/dagu/.dagu
- ./dags/:/home/dagu/.dagu/dags
depends_on:
- init
# scheduler process
scheduler:
image: "yohamta/dagu:latest"
environment:
- DAGU_DAGS=/home/dagu/.dagu/dags
restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
- dagu:/home/dagu/.dagu
- ./dags/:/home/dagu/.dagu/dags
command: dagu scheduler
depends_on:
- init
volumes:
dagu: {}
Download the Dockerfile to your local PC and you can build an image.
For example:
DAGU_VERSION=1.9.0
docker build -t dagu:${DAGU_VERSION} \
--build-arg VERSION=${DAGU_VERSION} \
--no-cache .
Please refer to REST API Docs
Before building the binary from the source code, make sure that you have the following software installed on your system:
- Go version 1.18 or later.
- Latest version of Node.js.
- yarn package manager.
To build the binary from the source code, follow these steps:
- Clone the repository to your local machine.
- Navigate to the root directory of the cloned repository and build the frontend project by running the following command:
make build-admin
- Build the
dagu
binary by running the following command:
make build
You can now use the dagu
binary that is created in the ./bin
directory.
Feel free to contribute in any way you want. Share ideas, questions, submit issues, and create pull requests. Thanks!
By default, the execution history data is retained for 30 days. However, you can customize this setting by modifying the histRetentionDays
field in a YAML file.
To configure the host and port for dagu server
, you can set the environment variables DAGU_HOST
and DAGU_PORT
. Refer to the Configuration Options for more details.
You can customize the directory used to store DAG files by setting the environment variable DAGU_DAGS
. See Configuration Options for more information.
If you want to retry a DAG from a specific task, you can set the status of that task to failed
by clicking the step in the Web UI. When you rerun the DAG, it will execute the failed task and any subsequent tasks.
dagu
uses Unix sockets to communicate with running processes.
We welcome contributions to Dagu! If you have an idea for a new feature or have found a bug, please open an issue on the GitHub repository. If you would like to contribute code, please follow these steps:
- Fork the repository
- Create a new branch for your changes
- Make your changes and commit them to your branch
- Push your branch to your fork and open a pull request
This project is licensed under the GNU GPLv3. Refer to the LICENSE.md file for more details.