rabbitmq
Build messaging systems with RabbitMQ — queues, exchanges, routing, dead-letter queues, delayed messages, priority queues, and RPC patterns. Use when tasks involve task queues, background job processing, inter-service communication, request-reply patterns, or reliable message delivery with acknowledgments.
Usage
Getting Started
- Install the skill using the command above
- Open your AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or Cursor)
- Reference the skill in your prompt
- The AI will use the skill's capabilities automatically
Example Prompts
- "Deploy the latest build to the staging environment and run smoke tests"
- "Check the CI pipeline status and summarize any recent failures"
Documentation
Build reliable messaging and task queue systems for microservice architectures and background processing.
Setup
# docker-compose.yml — RabbitMQ with management UI
services:
rabbitmq:
image: rabbitmq:3.13-management
ports:
- "5672:5672" # AMQP
- "15672:15672" # Management UI
environment:
RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER: admin
RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS: secret
volumes:
- rabbitmq-data:/var/lib/rabbitmq
volumes:
rabbitmq-data:
Management UI at http://localhost:15672 (admin/secret).
Core Concepts
RabbitMQ routes messages through exchanges to queues. Producers send to exchanges, consumers read from queues. The exchange type determines routing logic:
- Direct — routes by exact routing key match
- Fanout — broadcasts to all bound queues (pub/sub)
- Topic — routes by pattern matching on routing key (
order.*,#.error) - Headers — routes by message header values
Producer and Consumer
Node.js (amqplib)
// connection.ts — Shared connection with auto-reconnect
import amqp, { Channel, Connection } from 'amqplib';
let connection: Connection;
let channel: Channel;
async function getChannel(): Promise<Channel> {
if (channel) return channel;
connection = await amqp.connect('amqp://admin:secret@localhost:5672');
channel = await connection.createChannel();
// Prefetch 10 — each consumer processes up to 10 unacked messages
// Prevents one slow consumer from starving others
await channel.prefetch(10);
connection.on('close', () => {
console.error('RabbitMQ connection closed, reconnecting...');
channel = null!;
setTimeout(getChannel, 5000);
});
return channel;
}
export { getChannel };
// task-producer.ts — Send tasks to a work queue
import { getChannel } from './connection';
/** Send a background task to the processing queue.
*
* @param queue - Target queue name.
* @param task - Task payload.
* @param priority - 0 (normal) to 9 (highest). Requires priority queue.
*/
async function sendTask(queue: string, task: object, priority = 0) {
const ch = await getChannel();
// Assert queue exists with desired properties (idempotent)
await ch.assertQueue(queue, {
durable: true, // Survives broker restart
arguments: {
'x-max-priority': 10, // Enable priority queue
'x-dead-letter-exchange': 'dlx', // Failed messages go here
'x-message-ttl': 86400000, // 24h TTL
},
});
ch.sendToQueue(queue, Buffer.from(JSON.stringify(task)), {
persistent: true, // Write to disk (survives restart)
priority,
contentType: 'application/json',
timestamp: Date.now(),
messageId: crypto.randomUUID(),
});
}
// Example: send an email task
await sendTask('email-queue', {
to: 'user@example.com',
template: 'welcome',
data: { name: 'Alex', activationLink: 'https://app.example.com/activate/abc123' },
});
// High-priority: password reset (skip ahead of marketing emails)
await sendTask('email-queue', {
to: 'user@example.com',
template: 'password-reset',
data: { resetLink: 'https://app.example.com/reset/xyz789' },
}, 9);
// task-consumer.ts — Process tasks with acknowledgment
import { getChannel } from './connection';
/** Start consuming tasks from a queue.
*
* @param queue - Queue to consume from.
* @param handler - Async function that processes each task.
*/
async function startWorker(queue: string, handler: (task: any) => Promise<void>) {
const ch = await getChannel();
await ch.assertQueue(queue, { durable: true });
ch.consume(queue, async (msg) => {
if (!msg) return;
const task = JSON.parse(msg.content.toString());
const msgId = msg.properties.messageId;
try {
await handler(task);
ch.ack(msg); // Success — remove from queue
} catch (err) {
console.error(`Task ${msgId} failed:`, err);
// Check if this has been retried too many times
const retryCount = (msg.properties.headers?.['x-retry-count'] || 0);
if (retryCount >= 3) {
ch.nack(msg, false, false); // Send to dead-letter queue after 3 retries
} else {
// Requeue with incremented retry count
ch.nack(msg, false, false);
ch.sendToQueue(queue, msg.content, {
...msg.properties,
headers: { ...msg.properties.headers, 'x-retry-count': retryCount + 1 },
});
}
}
});
console.log(`Worker started on queue: ${queue}`);
}
// Start processing emails
startWorker('email-queue', async (task) => {
await sendEmail(task.to, task.template, task.data);
});
For Python, use pika with BlockingConnection, basic_qos(prefetch_count=N), and basic_consume with basic_ack/basic_nack for message handling.
Exchange Patterns
Fanout (broadcast)
Every bound queue gets every message — useful for notifications, cache invalidation, audit logging:
// fanout.ts — Broadcast events to multiple consumers
const ch = await getChannel();
await ch.assertExchange('user-events', 'fanout', { durable: true });
// Each service creates its own queue bound to the exchange
// Email service queue
await ch.assertQueue('user-events-email', { durable: true });
await ch.bindQueue('user-events-email', 'user-events', '');
// Analytics service queue
await ch.assertQueue('user-events-analytics', { durable: true });
await ch.bindQueue('user-events-analytics', 'user-events', '');
// Publish — all bound queues receive the message
ch.publish('user-events', '', Buffer.from(JSON.stringify({
type: 'user.registered',
userId: 'usr-456',
email: 'new@example.com',
})), { persistent: true });
Topic (pattern routing)
Route messages to queues based on pattern matching:
// topic.ts — Route by pattern (e.g., order.created goes to fulfillment, order.* goes to audit)
const ch = await getChannel();
await ch.assertExchange('events', 'topic', { durable: true });
// Fulfillment only cares about new orders
await ch.assertQueue('fulfillment', { durable: true });
await ch.bindQueue('fulfillment', 'events', 'order.created');
// Audit log captures everything
await ch.assertQueue('audit-log', { durable: true });
await ch.bindQueue('audit-log', 'events', '#'); // # matches all routing keys
// Payment service handles payment events
await ch.assertQueue('payment-processing', { durable: true });
await ch.bindQueue('payment-processing', 'events', 'payment.*');
// Publish with routing key
ch.publish('events', 'order.created', Buffer.from(JSON.stringify({ orderId: 'ord-123' })));
ch.publish('events', 'payment.received', Buffer.from(JSON.stringify({ amount: 89.97 })));
Dead-Letter Queue
Failed messages need a place to go for inspection and replay:
// dlq.ts — Dead-letter exchange and queue setup
const ch = await getChannel();
// Dead-letter exchange and queue
await ch.assertExchange('dlx', 'direct', { durable: true });
await ch.assertQueue('dead-letters', { durable: true });
await ch.bindQueue('dead-letters', 'dlx', '');
// Main queue — failed messages automatically route to DLX
await ch.assertQueue('orders', {
durable: true,
arguments: {
'x-dead-letter-exchange': 'dlx',
'x-dead-letter-routing-key': '',
},
});
// Monitor dead letters
ch.consume('dead-letters', (msg) => {
if (!msg) return;
const reason = msg.properties.headers?.['x-death']?.[0]?.reason;
console.error(`Dead letter (${reason}):`, msg.content.toString());
// Alert, log to monitoring, or attempt manual replay
ch.ack(msg);
});
Delayed Messages
Use the rabbitmq_delayed_message_exchange plugin. Assert an exchange with type x-delayed-message, then publish messages with headers: { 'x-delay': delayMs } to schedule future delivery.
RPC (Request-Reply)
For request-reply, create an exclusive auto-delete reply queue, send with correlationId and replyTo, and consume the reply queue filtering by correlationId.
Guidelines
- Always acknowledge messages — unacked messages block the queue and prevent other consumers from getting them
- Set prefetch count — without it, RabbitMQ sends all messages to one consumer, starving others
- Use durable queues and persistent messages for anything that matters — in-memory queues vanish on restart
- Dead-letter queues are not optional — without them, failed messages disappear silently
- One queue per consumer type — don't have email and SMS services reading from the same queue
- Idempotent consumers — messages can be delivered more than once (network issues, rebalances). Design handlers to be safe to re-run.
- Monitor queue depth — growing queue length means consumers can't keep up. Alert on it.
- Connection pooling — create one connection with multiple channels, not one connection per operation
Information
- Version
- 1.0.0
- Author
- terminal-skills
- Category
- DevOps
- License
- Apache-2.0