Devtoolwatch BoardInngest review
Inngest is a workflow orchestration platform for running durable step functions, background jobs, and AI workflows on serverless, servers, or the edge.
TL;DR
Inngest is a durable execution platform that replaces queues, state management, and scheduling with step functions written in your own code. It is for developers building background jobs, multi-step workflows, and AI agents in TypeScript, Python, Go, or Kotlin/Java. Inngest retries failed work from the failed step and adds flow control, isolated microVM Sandboxes, and agent evals.
- 6kGitHub stars
- +18new stars, week of Oct 25
- ~3.7Mdownloads a week, +11% vs 4-week avg
- #6in Sandboxes and runtimes this week
Inngest at a glance
- Category
- Sandboxes and runtimes
- Maintained by
- Inngest (organization, @inngest on GitHub)
- Language
- Go, TypeScript, Lua
- Repository
- github.com/inngest/inngest
- Website
- www.inngest.com/docs
- npm package
- inngest 4.25.0
- PyPI package
- inngest 0.5.19
- Latest release
- v1.47.0 on GitHub, Oct 21, 2026
- First published
- Jun 7, 2021
What Inngest does
- Inngest runs functions triggered by events, cron schedules, or webhook events.
- Inngest saves each step's result and retries failed work from the step that failed, not the whole job.
- Inngest flow control configures concurrency, throttling, debouncing, rate limiting, prioritization, and batching for function runs.
- Inngest functions can pause with waitForEvent and be canceled by cancelOn event expressions.
- Inngest Sandboxes run code in isolated microVMs as part of a durable run.
- Inngest Agent Evals score outcomes and compare changes to prompts, models, steps, and workflows.
- Inngest provides traces, run replay, metrics, and a run-level AI usage summary showing tokens, cost, and models used.
How it works
You write functions with an Inngest SDK, deploy them to your own infrastructure, and sync them with Inngest Cloud or a self-hosted server. Inngest invokes your functions over HTTPS when triggering events arrive. Internally, an Event API, event stream, runner, queue, executor, and state store schedule and execute runs. GraphQL and REST APIs and a dashboard manage resources.
How to install and start using Inngest
Run the Dev Server with npx
npx inngest-cli@latest devRequirements
- The TypeScript SDK requires Node.js 20 or later.
- The Python SDK requires Python 3.10 or later.
- Cloud sandboxes in local development require a paid plan and a Cloud environment with a default VPC.
First steps
- Start the Inngest Dev Server locally with npx inngest-cli@latest dev.
- Open the Inngest Dev Server dashboard at http://localhost:8288.
- Follow the Next.js, Node.js, or Python quick start guide to write your first function.
- Send an event with inngest.send from your code to trigger the function.
Who Inngest is for
- Developers running multi-step background jobs that should retry individual failed steps.
- Teams building AI agents that call tools, wait for people, and survive failures.
- Multi-tenant apps needing concurrency, throttling, and fairness controls per tenant or user.
- Developers running generated code or testing repositories in isolated microVMs.
Limitations to know
- Inngest Cloud sandboxes require a paid plan and are billable resources that are not destroyed when the dev server stops.
- Inngest's Cloud sandboxes in local development are experimental, and branch-child environments without a VPC are not supported.
- The Inngest server and CLI use the Server Side Public License, while SDKs use Apache 2.0.
- Inngest's sandbox bridge does not retry after ambiguous connection failures; remote dev servers need a local port forward.
Is Inngest growing? Usage data
In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Inngest ranked #206 on the Devtoolwatch Board and #6 in Sandboxes and runtimes, with a momentum score of 44 out of 100. Its main package had about 3.7M downloads that week, +11% against its own 4-week average.
Show the weekly numbers
| Week of | New stars |
|---|---|
| Aug 9, 2026 | 27 |
| Aug 16, 2026 | 32 |
| Aug 23, 2026 | 27 |
| Aug 30, 2026 | 30 |
| Sep 6, 2026 | 17 |
| Sep 13, 2026 | 26 |
| Sep 20, 2026 | 41 |
| Sep 27, 2026 | 18 |
| Oct 4, 2026 | 25 |
| Oct 11, 2026 | 26 |
| Oct 18, 2026 | 32 |
| Oct 25, 2026 | 18 |
On Hacker News
- Building a fair multi-tenant queuing system, 176 points and 57 comments (Jan 22, 2024)
- Show HN: Inngest 1.0 – Open-source durable workflows on every platform, 165 points and 51 comments (Sep 20, 2024)
- You can't cancel a JavaScript promise (except sometimes you can), 97 points and 61 comments (Apr 7, 2026)
- Show HN: Inngest – Developer platform for background jobs and workflows, 87 points and 25 comments (Jun 20, 2023)
- What Python’s asyncio primitives get wrong about shared state, 79 points and 48 comments (Mar 5, 2026)
The Board ranks tools by four signals each week: new stars, new stars for the repo's size, added downloads and download growth beyond the market. How the ranking works.
Inngest alternatives
Other AI sandboxes and runtimes on the Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum:
| Rank | Tool | Stars | Downloads/wk |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | OpenSandboxOpenSandbox is a sandbox runtime that gives AI agents isolated environments to run code, commands, files, browsers, and desktops on your… | 16.3k | 328.9k |
| #2 | microsandboxmicrosandbox is a local-first microVM runtime and library for running untrusted workloads like AI agents, user code, and CI jobs in… | 8.9k | 26.8k |
| #3 | E2BE2B is open-source infrastructure for running AI-generated code in secure, isolated cloud sandboxes, controlled through JavaScript and… | 14.6k | 5M |
| #4 | Agent Sandboxagent-sandbox enables easy management of isolated, stateful, singleton workloads, ideal for use cases like AI agent runtimes and… | 4.5k | – |
| #5 | Trigger.devTrigger.dev is an open-source TypeScript platform for building and deploying durable AI agents, workflows, and long-running background… | 16.7k | 1.7M |
| #7 | Cloudflare Sandbox SDKCloudflare Sandbox SDK runs untrusted or generated code in per-user Linux sandboxes built on Cloudflare Durable Objects and Containers. | 1.2k | 1.2M |
Recent Inngest releases
Inngest FAQ
Is Inngest free and open source?
Inngest's code is on GitHub (inngest/inngest), but the repository doesn't declare a standard open-source license. Check its license file before using it commercially.
How do I install Inngest?
Run npx inngest-cli@latest dev. It needs Node.js >=20. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.
Is Inngest still maintained?
Yes. The inngest/inngest repository was last updated on Oct 21, 2026, and the latest release, v1.47.0 on GitHub, came out on Oct 21, 2026.
How popular is Inngest?
Inngest has 6k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 18 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 27 a week. Its main package had about 3.7M downloads that week, +11% against its own 4-week average. That made it #6 among AI sandboxes and runtimes on the Devtoolwatch Board.
Inngest vs Trigger.dev: how do they compare?
Inngest and Trigger.dev are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as AI sandboxes and runtimes. Inngest has 6k GitHub stars and Trigger.dev has 16.7k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Inngest's main package had 3.7M downloads and Trigger.dev's had 1.7M. Trigger.dev is an open-source TypeScript platform for building and deploying durable AI agents, workflows, and long-running background tasks. Trigger.dev review.
Inngest vs n8n: how do they compare?
Inngest and n8n are both tracked by Devtoolwatch. Inngest has 6k GitHub stars and n8n has 209.2k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Inngest's main package had 3.7M downloads and n8n's had 147.7k. n8n is a fair-code workflow automation platform for building AI agents and workflows with a visual canvas plus custom code, self-hosted or cloud. n8n review.
What are the best alternatives to Inngest?
Other AI sandboxes and runtimes on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: OpenSandbox (#1), microsandbox (#2), E2B (#3), Agent Sandbox (#4), Trigger.dev (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.
What is Inngest used for?
Inngest is used to run reliable background jobs, durable multi-step workflows, AI agents, and generated code. It replaces queues, state management, and scheduling, retrying failed steps and recording work in traces.
How does Inngest work?
Inngest invokes your deployed functions over HTTPS when triggering events arrive. Each step runs, its result is saved, and failed steps are retried. A runner schedules runs, a queue applies flow control, and an executor runs steps and stores state.
What is the Inngest server?
The Inngest server receives events, schedules and queues function runs, executes steps, stores run state and history, and exposes GraphQL and REST APIs plus a dashboard. You can use Inngest Cloud or self-host it.
Which languages does Inngest support?
Inngest has SDKs for TypeScript/JavaScript, Python, Go, and Kotlin/Java. The TypeScript SDK works with Node.js, Bun, Deno, and edge runtimes, and the Python SDK supports FastAPI, Flask, and Django.
Sources
- inngest/inngest on GitHub
- Inngest README
- inngest on npm
- inngest on PyPI
- Inngest website
- Release v1.47.0 (Oct 21, 2026)
- Release v1.46.0 (Oct 6, 2026)
- Release v1.45.1 (Sep 17, 2026)
- Hacker News: Building a fair multi-tenant queuing system
- Hacker News: Show HN: Inngest 1.0 – Open-source durable workflows on every platform
- Hacker News: You can't cancel a JavaScript promise (except sometimes you can)
- Devtoolwatch Board, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026
Inngest README badge
Maintainers can show the tool's weekly Board rank in their README:
[](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/inngest/)How this page is made: Devtoolwatch writes each review from the project's README, releases, package metadata and website, with an AI model, then checks every claim against the source it cites and drops what the sources don't support. The numbers come from Devtoolwatch's daily GitHub snapshots, GitHub's stargazer history, and the npm and PyPI download APIs. Spotted an error? Email [email protected].