Glide Mq Migrate Bee

Migrate from Bee-Queue to glide-mq

When to Apply

Use this skill when:

• Replacing bee-queue with glide-mq in an existing project
• Converting Bee-Queue's chained job API to glide-mq's options API
• Updating connection configuration from ioredis to valkey-glide
• Upgrading from bee-queue due to Node.js compatibility or maintenance issues

Step-by-step guide for converting Bee-Queue projects to glide-mq. Bee-Queue uses a chained job builder pattern - this migration requires rewriting job creation and separating producer/consumer concerns.

Why Migrate

• Unmaintained - last release 2021, accumulating Node.js compatibility issues
• No cluster support - cannot scale beyond a single Redis instance
• No TLS - requires manual ioredis workarounds for encrypted connections
• No native TypeScript - community @types/bee-queue only, often outdated
• No priority queues - workaround is multiple queues
• No workflows - no parent-child jobs, no DAGs, no repeatable/cron jobs
• No rate limiting, batch processing, or broadcast
• glide-mq provides all Bee-Queue features plus 35%+ higher throughput

Breaking Changes Summary

Queue Settings Mapping

Queue Method Mapping

Event Mapping

Per-job events (job.on(...)) do not exist in glide-mq. Use QueueEvents and filter by jobId, or use queue.addAndWait() for request-reply patterns.

Step-by-Step Conversion

1. Connection

// BEFORE (Bee-Queue)
const Queue = require('bee-queue');
const queue = new Queue('tasks', {
  redis: { host: 'localhost', port: 6379 }
});

// AFTER (glide-mq)
import { Queue, Worker } from 'glide-mq';
const connection = { addresses: [{ host: 'localhost', port: 6379 }] };
const queue = new Queue('tasks', { connection });

2. Job Creation (Biggest Change)

Bee-Queue uses chained builder with no job name. glide-mq uses a single call with a required name.

// BEFORE (Bee-Queue) - chained builder, no name
const job = await queue.createJob({ email: 'user@example.com' })
  .retries(3)
  .backoff('exponential', 1000)
  .delayUntil(Date.now() + 60000)
  .setId('unique-123')
  .save();

// AFTER (glide-mq) - options object, name required
await queue.add('send-email',
  { email: 'user@example.com' },
  {
    attempts: 3,  // NOT "retries" - different name!
    backoff: { type: 'exponential', delay: 1000 },
    delay: 60000,
    jobId: 'unique-123',
  }
);

3. Worker

// BEFORE (Bee-Queue)
queue.process(10, async (job) => {
  return { processed: true };
});
queue.on('succeeded', (job, result) => console.log('Done:', result));

// AFTER (glide-mq) - separate Worker class
const worker = new Worker('tasks', async (job) => {
  return { processed: true };
}, { connection, concurrency: 10 });
worker.on('completed', (job) => console.log('Done:', job.returnValue));

4. Batch Save

// BEFORE (Bee-Queue)
const jobs = items.map(item => queue.createJob(item));
await queue.saveAll(jobs);

// AFTER (glide-mq) - each entry needs a name
await queue.addBulk(items.map(item => ({
  name: 'process',
  data: item
})));

5. Producer-Only

// BEFORE (Bee-Queue) - disable worker mode
const queue = new Queue('tasks', {
  isWorker: false, getEvents: false, sendEvents: false,
  redis: { host: 'localhost', port: 6379 }
});

// AFTER (glide-mq) - Producer class
import { Producer } from 'glide-mq';
const producer = new Producer('tasks', { connection });
await producer.add('job-name', data);
await producer.close();

6. Progress Reporting

// BEFORE (Bee-Queue) - arbitrary JSON
queue.process(async (job) => {
  job.reportProgress({ percent: 50, message: 'halfway' });
  return result;
});

// AFTER (glide-mq) - number (0-100) or object
const worker = new Worker('tasks', async (job) => {
  await job.updateProgress(50);
  await job.updateProgress({ page: 3, total: 10 });  // objects also supported
  await job.log('halfway done');  // structured info goes to job.log()
  return result;
}, { connection });

7. Stall Detection

// BEFORE (Bee-Queue) - manual setup required
const queue = new Queue('tasks', { stallInterval: 5000 });
queue.checkStalledJobs(5000);  // must call manually!

// AFTER (glide-mq) - automatic on Worker
const worker = new Worker('tasks', processor, {
  connection,
  lockDuration: 30000,
  stalledInterval: 30000,
  maxStalledCount: 2
});
// Stall detection runs automatically - no manual call

8. Health Check

// BEFORE (Bee-Queue)
const health = await queue.checkHealth();
// { waiting, active, succeeded, failed, delayed, newestJob }

// AFTER (glide-mq)
const counts = await queue.getJobCounts();
// { waiting, active, completed, failed, delayed }

9. Web UI (Arena to Dashboard)

// BEFORE (Bee-Queue) - Arena
const Arena = require('bull-arena');
app.use('/', Arena({ Bee: require('bee-queue'), queues: [{ name: 'tasks' }] }));

// AFTER (glide-mq) - Dashboard
import { createDashboard } from '@glidemq/dashboard';
app.use('/dashboard', createDashboard([queue]));

What You Gain

Features Bee-Queue does not have that are available after migration:

Migration Checklist

- [ ] Install glide-mq, uninstall bee-queue and @types/bee-queue
- [ ] Create connection config (addresses array format)
- [ ] Convert queue.createJob().save() to queue.add(name, data, opts)
- [ ] Add job names to every queue.add() call (Bee-Queue had none)
- [ ] Convert .retries(n) to { attempts: n } (different name!)
- [ ] Convert .backoff(strategy, delay) to { backoff: { type, delay } }
- [ ] Convert .delayUntil(date) to { delay: ms }
- [ ] Convert .setId(id) to { jobId: id }
- [ ] Convert queue.process() to new Worker()
- [ ] Convert queue.saveAll() to queue.addBulk()
- [ ] Separate producer queues (isWorker:false to Producer class)
- [ ] Convert job.reportProgress(json) to job.updateProgress(number | object)
- [ ] Remove manual checkStalledJobs() calls (automatic on Worker)
- [ ] Convert checkHealth() to getJobCounts()
- [ ] Update event listeners (queue.on to worker.on or QueueEvents)
- [ ] Convert per-job events (job.on) to QueueEvents
- [ ] Keep the project's existing module system (CommonJS or ESM)
- [ ] Run full test suite
- [ ] Confirm queue counts: await queue.getJobCounts()
- [ ] Confirm no jobs stuck in active state
- [ ] Smoke-test QueueEvents or SSE listeners if the app exposes them
- [ ] Confirm workers, queues, and connections close cleanly

Troubleshooting

Quick Start Commands

npm uninstall bee-queue @types/bee-queue
npm install glide-mq

References