Trigger Realtime And Frontend

Realtime and Frontend

The full, version-pinned reference ships inside your installed @trigger.dev/sdk. Read it before writing code — it always matches the SDK version in this project, so it never drifts:

• Skill: node_modules/@trigger.dev/sdk/skills/trigger-realtime-and-frontend/SKILL.md — run subscriptions, @trigger.dev/react-hooks, streams, frontend triggering, and scoped tokens.
• Docs: the full, version-pinned docs ship bundled at node_modules/@trigger.dev/sdk/docs/realtime/; the skill above lists the exact pages it draws from in its sources: frontmatter. Grep for a hook, e.g. grep -rl "useRealtimeRun" node_modules/@trigger.dev/sdk/docs/.

If those paths don't exist, @trigger.dev/sdk isn't installed yet — install it first. In a non-hoisted layout, resolve the package with node -p "require.resolve('@trigger.dev/sdk/package.json')" and read skills/ + docs/ beside it.

Common mistakes

• CRITICAL: Triggering from the browser with a Public Access Token. The

read token from createPublicToken cannot trigger tasks.

• Wrong: useTaskTrigger("my-task", { accessToken: publicAccessTokenFromCreatePublicToken })
• Correct: mint a single-use Trigger Token with auth.createTriggerPublicToken("my-task") and pass that.

• Token with no scopes. A scopeless token authorizes nothing, so every subscribe 403s.
• Wrong: await auth.createPublicToken()
• Correct: await auth.createPublicToken({ scopes: { read: { runs: ["run_1234"] } } })

• Polling with useRun/SWR for live updates. useRun is the SWR-based

management-API hook (not recommended for live state); set refreshInterval: 0

to stop polling if you do use it.

• Wrong: useRun(runId, { refreshInterval: 1000 }) to track progress
• Correct: useRealtimeRun(runId, { accessToken }) (no polling, no WebSocket setup)

• Forgetting "use client". Realtime/trigger hooks cannot run in a server component.
• Wrong: a Next.js App Router server component using useRealtimeRun
• Correct: put "use client"; at the top of any component using these hooks.

• Shipping payload/output you do not render.
• Wrong: useRealtimeRun(runId, { accessToken }) for a status badge (large payloads over the wire)
• Correct: useRealtimeRun(runId, { accessToken, skipColumns: ["payload", "output"] })

• Subscribing before the handle exists.
• Wrong: useRealtimeRun(handle, { accessToken: handle?.publicAccessToken }) with no guard
• Correct: add enabled: !!handle so it subscribes only once the trigger returns a handle.

References

Sibling skills: trigger-authoring-tasks (the task side: streams.define(), metadata.set(), wait.createToken), trigger-authoring-chat-agent and trigger-chat-agent-advanced (chat agents build on these realtime streams).