Documentation

Everything you need to schedule, run and monitor background jobs with Tend. New here? Start with the quickstart.

Getting started

• IntroductionTend is a hosted API for scheduling and running background jobs, with cron schedules, delayed jobs, automatic retries, concurrency limits, and signed webhook deliveries.
• QuickstartCreate a project, schedule a delayed job and a nightly cron schedule, and receive a signed webhook, in roughly ten minutes.
• Authentication and API keysHow Tend authenticates requests, what the tnd_live_ and tnd_dev_ prefixes mean, and how to store, scope and rotate keys safely.
• Core concepts: jobs, schedules and runsPrecise definitions of jobs, schedules, runs and attempts, including the retry backoff formula, idempotency, concurrency and pagination.

Guides

• Cron schedules and time zonesHow to create, inspect, and change cron schedules in Tend, including time zone handling, daylight saving behavior, and the 30-second minimum interval.
• Retries and backoffHow Tend decides when a run has failed, how the exponential-backoff-with-jitter delay is computed, and how to tune attempts, base, and cap per job.
• Webhooks and signature verificationHow Tend delivers job results to your endpoint, how to verify the Tend-Signature header, and how delivery retries behave over a 48-hour window.
• Idempotency keysHow the Idempotency-Key header lets you retry job-creating requests safely, what the 24-hour window covers, and how to handle conflicts.
• Concurrency limits and queuesHow Tend caps the number of simultaneously running jobs per project, how excess jobs wait in queues, and how to tune throughput safely.
• Regions and data residencyWhere Tend runs your jobs, how to pin work to a region, and what stays inside that region.
• Rate limitsThe per-project request limits on the Tend API, the headers that report them, and patterns for staying under them.
• Error handling and error codesThe shape of Tend API errors, every error code with its meaning, and retry strategies that do not make things worse.

Tools

• Pagination and filteringHow to page through jobs, schedules and runs with cursors, and how to narrow list results with filters and sort orders.
• SDKs and client librariesInstall and configure the official Python, Node.js and Go SDKs, and learn what they handle for you so you don't reimplement it.
• Migrating from system cronA practical guide to moving crontab entries onto Tend schedules, including the semantic differences that catch people out.
• Monitoring, alerts and run logsHow to inspect runs, understand their lifecycle, search logs within your retention window, and get told when something breaks.