Portable, CDI-based job scheduler for Jakarta EE 10/11.

Inject one service, submit a method call, and let Ratchet persist, claim, execute, retry, and observe the work — no heavyweight framework, no proprietary runtime.

@ApplicationScoped
public class OrderService {

    @Inject JobSchedulerService scheduler;

    public void placeOrder(Order order) {
        // Persisted, claimed, executed on a worker, retried on failure.
        scheduler.enqueueNow(() -> processOrder(order.getId()));
    }

    void processOrder(UUID orderId) { /* your business logic */ }
}

Full documentation → ratchet.run

Why Ratchet

• Zero-ceremony CDI. @Inject JobSchedulerService and go. No XML, no scheduler boilerplate, no separate daemon.
• Real workflows, not just timers. Chaining, conditional branching on results, batches, and jobs that park on an external signal until an approval or webhook resumes them.
• Resilience built in. Retries with backoff, a circuit breaker, and a dead-letter queue — no Resilience4j, no Flyway, no extra runtime deps.
• Stores you can prove. MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB ship out of the box, each verified by a reusable store TCK. Bring your own and run the same conformance suite.
• Customizable to the core — see below.
• Portable. Plain Jakarta EE 10/11. Runs on WildFly, Open Liberty, Payara, GlassFish, and friends.

Full feature tour →

Built to be customized

Almost every moving part of Ratchet is an SPI you can swap with a single CDI @Alternative bean — no forking, no config files. Override one interface and the engine picks it up at deploy time:

@Alternative
@Priority(jakarta.interceptor.Interceptor.Priority.APPLICATION)
@ApplicationScoped
public class PaymentRetryPolicy implements RetryPolicy {
    @Override
    public boolean shouldRetry(int attempt, Throwable cause) {
        // Stop early on a hard decline; otherwise let maxRetries decide.
        return !(cause instanceof PaymentDeclinedException);
    }
}

Swap the retry logic, circuit-breaker behavior, polling cadence, thread/executor strategy, payload encryption, key provider, metrics sink, per-job logging, node identity, cluster wakeups, the deserialization allowlist, and more — over two dozen extension points in all, each with a sensible default you only replace when you need to.

SPI extension guide → · Full SPI reference →

Quick Start

<dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>run.ratchet</groupId>
      <artifactId>ratchet-bom</artifactId>
      <version>0.1.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
      <type>pom</type>
      <scope>import</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>run.ratchet</groupId>
    <artifactId>ratchet-api</artifactId>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>run.ratchet</groupId>
    <artifactId>ratchet</artifactId>
  </dependency>
  <!-- Pick your store: ratchet-store-{postgresql,mysql,mongodb} -->
  <dependency>
    <groupId>run.ratchet</groupId>
    <artifactId>ratchet-store-postgresql</artifactId>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

Then three things before your first job runs:

1. Provide a ClassPolicy. Ratchet refuses to start without a deserialization allowlist for job payloads — a security default, not a hurdle. A one-line @Alternative bean naming your packages does it.
2. Apply the schema. SQL stores ship plain DDL (ddl/*-schema.sql) — apply it however you manage migrations. MongoDB initializes itself.
3. Schedule a job. scheduler.enqueueNow(() -> work()), or use the builder for delays, priority, and options.

The Quick Start guide walks through all three with copy-paste snippets.

A taste of the API

// Multi-step workflow with conditional branching
scheduler.enqueue(() -> riskService.assess(applicationId))
    .whenResult(RiskConditions::isLowRisk,  () -> autoApprove(applicationId))
    .whenResult(RiskConditions::isHighRisk, () -> manualReview(applicationId))
    .thenOnFailure(() -> escalate(applicationId))
    .submit();

// Declarative cron scheduling
@Recurring(cron = "0 0 2 * * ?", name = "Nightly Cleanup")
public void performCleanup() { /* runs at 2 AM UTC */ }

// Park a job until an external signal arrives (or it times out)
scheduler.enqueue(() -> shipOrder(orderId))
    .awaitSignal("order:" + orderId + ":approved", Duration.ofHours(24))
    .submit();

More — batches, callbacks, encrypted payloads, event observation, job control: Workflows · Recurring jobs · Signals · Batches · Circuit breakers · Payload encryption · API reference

Showcase App

ratchet-showcase is a runnable Jakarta EE WAR with an order-fulfillment dashboard demonstrating live workflow chains, conditional fraud-review signals, retries, resource limits, queue health, and Prometheus metrics. See testing/ratchet-showcase/README.md to run it on WildFly, Payara, Open Liberty, or GlassFish against PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MongoDB.

Architecture

flowchart TD
  app["Your Application"]
  api["ratchet-api<br/>JobSchedulerService, JobBuilder, events, annotations, SPI"]
  ri["ratchet<br/>Poller, JobTask, CircuitBreaker, RetryEngine, RecurringScheduler, CDI wiring"]
  store["ratchet-store-core<br/>Entities + composed JobStore SPI"]
  mysql["ratchet-store-mysql"]
  postgres["ratchet-store-postgresql"]
  mongo["ratchet-store-mongodb"]

  app --> api --> ri --> store
  store --> mysql & postgres & mongo

Pluggable stores, optional cluster coordinators (PostgreSQL LISTEN/NOTIFY, JMS, Infinispan, Hazelcast), and reference encryption/metrics modules round out the reactor. Module overview & deployment topology →

Documentation

Requirements

• Java 17+
• Jakarta EE 10/11 (CDI 4.0/4.1, JPA 3.1/3.2, Interceptors 2.1/2.2, Concurrency 3.0/3.1)
• Runtime Jakarta EE 10/11 server with managed executors (WildFly, Open Liberty, Payara, GlassFish 8, …); plain CDI/test deployments can opt into StandaloneExecutorProvider
• Database MySQL 8+, PostgreSQL 14+, or MongoDB 6+

Building from Source

mvn clean compile        # compile all modules
mvn clean test           # unit tests
mvn clean verify         # unit + integration tests (requires Docker for Testcontainers)
mvn spotless:apply       # auto-format (Google Java Format)

Project Status

Ratchet is in 0.1.1-SNAPSHOT. The API is stabilizing; interfaces marked @Incubating may change between alpha releases. Feedback and contributions are welcome.

Community

• Contributing guide · Support · Security policy · Code of conduct
• Issues · Discussions

License

Ratchet is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.