Async communication patterns using message brokers and task queues. Use when building event-driven systems, background job processing, or service decoupling. Covers Kafka (event streaming), RabbitMQ (complex routing), NATS (cloud-native), Redis Streams, Celery (Python), BullMQ (TypeScript), Temporal (workflows), and event sourcing patterns.
npx skills add https://github.com/ancoleman/ai-design-components --skill using-message-queues
Implement asynchronous communication patterns for event-driven architectures, background job processing, and service decoupling.
Use message queues when:
Choose message broker based on primary need:
→ Apache Kafka
→ Task Queues
→ Temporal
→ NATS
→ RabbitMQ
→ Redis Streams
| Broker | Throughput | Latency (p99) | Best For |
|--------|-----------|---------------|----------|
| Kafka | 500K-1M msg/s | 10-50ms | Event streaming |
| NATS JetStream | 200K-400K msg/s | Sub-ms to 5ms | Cloud-native microservices |
| RabbitMQ | 50K-100K msg/s | 5-20ms | Task queues, complex routing |
| Redis Streams | 100K+ msg/s | Sub-ms | Simple queues, caching |
See examples/kafka-python/ for working code.
from confluent_kafka import Producer, Consumer
# Producer
producer = Producer({'bootstrap.servers': 'localhost:9092'})
producer.produce('orders', key='order_123', value='{"status": "created"}')
producer.flush()
# Consumer
consumer = Consumer({
'bootstrap.servers': 'localhost:9092',
'group.id': 'order-processors',
'auto.offset.reset': 'earliest'
})
consumer.subscribe(['orders'])
while True:
msg = consumer.poll(1.0)
if msg is not None:
process_order(msg.value())
See examples/celery-image-processing/ for full implementation.
from celery import Celery
app = Celery('tasks', broker='redis://localhost:6379')
@app.task(bind=True, max_retries=3)
def process_image(self, image_url: str):
try:
result = expensive_image_processing(image_url)
return result
except RecoverableError as e:
raise self.retry(exc=e, countdown=60)
See examples/bullmq-webhook-processor/ for full implementation.
import { Queue, Worker } from 'bullmq'
const queue = new Queue('webhooks', {
connection: { host: 'localhost', port: 6379 }
})
// Enqueue job
await queue.add('send-webhook', {
url: 'https://example.com/webhook',
payload: { event: 'order.created' }
})
// Process jobs
const worker = new Worker('webhooks', async job => {
await fetch(job.data.url, {
method: 'POST',
body: JSON.stringify(job.data.payload)
})
}, { connection: { host: 'localhost', port: 6379 } })
See examples/temporal-order-saga/ for saga pattern implementation.
from temporalio import workflow, activity
from datetime import timedelta
@workflow.defn
class OrderSagaWorkflow:
@workflow.run
async def run(self, order_id: str) -> str:
# Step 1: Reserve inventory
inventory_id = await workflow.execute_activity(
reserve_inventory,
order_id,
start_to_close_timeout=timedelta(seconds=10),
)
# Step 2: Charge payment
payment_id = await workflow.execute_activity(
charge_payment,
order_id,
start_to_close_timeout=timedelta(seconds=30),
)
return f"Order {order_id} completed"
Use: Domain.Entity.Action.Version
Examples:
order.created.v1user.profile.updated.v2payment.failed.v1{
"event_type": "order.created.v2",
"event_id": "uuid-here",
"timestamp": "2025-12-02T10:00:00Z",
"version": "2.0",
"data": {
"order_id": "ord_123",
"customer_id": "cus_456"
},
"metadata": {
"producer": "order-service",
"trace_id": "abc123",
"correlation_id": "xyz789"
}
}
Route failed messages to dead letter queue (DLQ) after max retries:
@app.task(bind=True, max_retries=3)
def process_order(self, order_id: str):
try:
result = perform_processing(order_id)
return result
except UnrecoverableError as e:
send_to_dlq(order_id, str(e))
raise Reject(e, requeue=False)
@app.post("/process")
async def process_payment(
payment_data: dict,
idempotency_key: str = Header(None)
):
# Check if already processed
cached_result = redis_client.get(f"idempotency:{idempotency_key}")
if cached_result:
return {"status": "already_processed"}
result = process_payment_logic(payment_data)
redis_client.setex(f"idempotency:{idempotency_key}", 86400, result)
return {"status": "processed", "result": result}
# FastAPI endpoint for real-time job status
@app.get("/status/{task_id}")
async def task_status_stream(task_id: str):
async def event_generator():
while True:
task = celery_app.AsyncResult(task_id)
if task.state == 'PROGRESS':
yield {"event": "progress", "data": task.info.get('progress', 0)}
elif task.state == 'SUCCESS':
yield {"event": "complete", "data": task.result}
break
await asyncio.sleep(0.5)
return EventSourceResponse(event_generator())
export function JobStatus({ jobId }: { jobId: string }) {
const [progress, setProgress] = useState(0)
useEffect(() => {
const eventSource = new EventSource(`/api/status/${jobId}`)
eventSource.addEventListener('progress', (e) => {
setProgress(JSON.parse(e.data))
})
eventSource.addEventListener('complete', (e) => {
toast({ title: 'Job complete', description: JSON.parse(e.data) })
eventSource.close()
})
return () => eventSource.close()
}, [jobId])
return <ProgressBar value={progress} />
}
For comprehensive documentation, see reference files:
references/kafka.md for partitioning, consumer groups, exactly-once semanticsreferences/rabbitmq.md for exchanges, bindings, routing patternsreferences/nats.md for JetStream, request-reply patternsreferences/redis-streams.md for consumer groups, acknowledgmentsreferences/celery.md for periodic tasks, canvas (workflows), monitoringreferences/bullmq.md for job prioritization, flows, Bull Board monitoringreferences/temporal-workflows.md for saga patterns, signals, queriesreferences/event-patterns.md for event sourcing, CQRS, outbox pattern# ❌ BAD: Blocks request thread
@app.post("/generate-report")
def generate_report(user_id: str):
report = expensive_computation(user_id) # 5 minutes!
return report
# ✅ GOOD: Enqueue background job
@app.post("/generate-report")
async def generate_report(user_id: str):
task = generate_report_task.delay(user_id)
return {"task_id": task.id}
# ❌ BAD: Processes duplicates
@app.task
def send_email(email: str):
send_email_service(email) # Sends twice if retried!
# ✅ GOOD: Idempotent with deduplication
@app.task
def send_email(email: str, idempotency_key: str):
if redis.exists(f"sent:{idempotency_key}"):
return "already_sent"
send_email_service(email)
redis.setex(f"sent:{idempotency_key}", 86400, "1")
# ❌ BAD: Failed messages lost forever
@app.task(max_retries=3)
def risky_task(data):
process(data) # If all retries fail, data disappears
# ✅ GOOD: DLQ for manual inspection
@app.task(max_retries=3)
def risky_task(data):
try:
process(data)
except Exception as e:
if self.request.retries >= 3:
send_to_dlq(data, str(e))
raise
# ❌ BAD: Kafka is not designed for RPC
def get_user_profile(user_id: str):
kafka_producer.send("user_requests", {"user_id": user_id})
# How to correlate response? Kafka is asynchronous!
# ✅ GOOD: Use NATS request-reply or HTTP/gRPC
response = await nats.request("user.profile", user_id.encode())
Confluent Kafka (Python)
/confluentinc/confluent-kafka-pythonTemporal
/websites/temporal_ioPython:
pip install confluent-kafka celery[redis] temporalio aio-pika redis
TypeScript/Node.js:
npm install kafkajs bullmq @temporalio/client amqplib ioredis
Rust:
cargo add rdkafka lapin async-nats redis
Go:
go get github.com/confluentinc/confluent-kafka-go
go get github.com/hibiken/asynq
go get go.temporal.io/sdk
Use scripts for setup automation:
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Take ancoleman/using-message-queues from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.
The instructions reference pip, npm.
Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.