Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/NikolayS/PgQue/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

PgQue brings the battle-proven PgQ architecture — originally built at Skype to handle messaging for hundreds of millions of users — to any Postgres 14+ deployment, including managed providers. Install with one SQL file, no C extension, no daemon, no restart required.

Installation

Install PgQue with a single SQL file on any Postgres 14+ instance, managed or self-hosted.

Quickstart

Send your first message, tick the queue, and receive it back in under five minutes.

SQL API Reference

Complete reference for every pgque.* function — signatures, return types, and role grants.

Client Libraries

First-party Python, Go, and TypeScript clients for building consumers and producers.

​
Why PgQue

Most Postgres queue implementations use SKIP LOCKED with UPDATE and DELETE. Under sustained load, this creates dead tuples, triggers VACUUM pressure, index bloat, and performance drift. PgQue avoids this entire class of problems.

Zero bloat by design

Snapshot-based batching and TRUNCATE-based table rotation produce zero dead tuples in the hot path — no VACUUM tuning required.

No performance decay

Throughput stays constant under sustained load. The queue does not get slower after months of operation.

Native fan-out

Every consumer has its own independent cursor on a shared event log. No data duplication — closer to Kafka topics than job queues.

Managed Postgres ready

Pure SQL + PL/pgSQL. No C extension, no shared_preload_libraries, no provider approval. Works on RDS, Aurora, Cloud SQL, AlloyDB, Supabase, and Neon.

​
Get started in four steps

1

Install PgQue

Run the single SQL file against your database — inside a transaction for safety.
begin;
\i sql/pgque.sql
commit;
2

Start the ticker

If you have pg_cron, one call schedules automatic ticking and maintenance.
select pgque.start();
3

Create a queue and send a message

Create a named queue, subscribe a consumer, then send your first event.
select pgque.create_queue('orders');
select pgque.subscribe('orders', 'processor');
select pgque.send('orders', '{"order_id": 42}'::jsonb);
4

Receive and acknowledge

Pull the batch and acknowledge it to advance the consumer cursor.
select * from pgque.receive('orders', 'processor', 100);
select pgque.ack(1);  -- use the batch_id from the receive result

​
Explore the docs

Ticker and scheduling

Configure pg_cron, pg_timetable, or external schedulers for automatic ticking.

Retry and dead letter queue

Handle failures with configurable retries and automatic DLQ routing.

Fan-out patterns

Send one event to multiple independent consumers without data duplication.

How PgQue works

Understand snapshot-based batching, tick cycles, and table rotation.

Latency trade-offs

Learn how tick rate controls end-to-end delivery latency and WAL overhead.

Benchmarks

Throughput numbers and zero-bloat verification under blocked xmin horizon.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us