Tauri Commands Async Patterns

Tauri v2 — Commands: Async Patterns

Tauri runs commands on tokio. Making a command async fn is free at the syntax level — the macro handles it — but the design implications are not. This skill covers when to go async, how to spawn work that outlives the IPC call, how to make that work cancellable, and how to stream progress without polling.

See [[tauri-commands]] for the basics, [[tauri-commands-state-injection]] for the tokio::Mutex rule this skill leans on, [[tauri-events]] for the event-vs-Channel decision.

When to make a command async

Make it async fn when the command performs any of:

• file I/O via tokio::fs
• network I/O (reqwest, sockets, sidecar IPC)
• sleeping / timers (tokio::time::sleep)
• awaiting another async API (DB drivers, plugin calls)

Keep it sync when the body is pure CPU work under a millisecond. CPU-heavy sync work in an async command will block a tokio worker — wrap with tokio::task::spawn_blocking instead.

#[tauri::command] works on async fn directly:

#[tauri::command]
async fn fetch_user(id: u64, client: tauri::State<'_, reqwest::Client>) -> Result<User, AppError> {
    let r = client.get(format!("https://api.example.com/u/{id}")).send().await?;
    Ok(r.json::<User>().await?)
}

JS-side invoke() already returns a Promise — there's no calling-convention difference between sync and async commands.

Background tasks that outlive the command

A common need: command kicks off work, returns immediately, work continues. The pattern is tokio::spawn with a cloned AppHandle:

#[tauri::command]
async fn start_sync(app: tauri::AppHandle) -> Result<(), AppError> {
    let app = app.clone();  // AppHandle is Arc-internally, cheap to clone
    tokio::spawn(async move {
        if let Err(e) = run_sync(&app).await {
            tracing::error!(error = ?e, "background sync failed");
        }
    });
    Ok(())  // returns before run_sync finishes
}

Do not capture State<'_, T> into the spawned future — the lifetime is the command's, not 'static. Instead capture the AppHandle and re-fetch state inside the task: let state = app.state::<MyState>();.

Cancellation — CancellationToken + tokio::select!

Long-running tasks need a stop button. Use tokio_util::sync::CancellationToken parked in managed state:

use tokio_util::sync::CancellationToken;

#[derive(Default)]
pub struct Jobs {
    pub current: tokio::sync::Mutex<Option<CancellationToken>>,
}

#[tauri::command]
async fn start_job(app: AppHandle, jobs: State<'_, Jobs>) -> Result<(), AppError> {
    let token = CancellationToken::new();
    *jobs.current.lock().await = Some(token.clone());
    let app = app.clone();
    tokio::spawn(async move {
        tokio::select! {
            _ = token.cancelled() => tracing::info!("job cancelled"),
            r = do_work(&app)     => if let Err(e) = r {
                tracing::error!(error = ?e, "job failed");
            }
        }
    });
    Ok(())
}

#[tauri::command]
async fn cancel_job(jobs: State<'_, Jobs>) -> Result<(), AppError> {
    if let Some(t) = jobs.current.lock().await.take() {
        t.cancel();
    }
    Ok(())
}

CancellationToken::cancel() is fire-and-forget — multiple holders can poll cancelled() from anywhere in the task tree. Child tokens via token.child_token() propagate cancellation down a hierarchy.

For pure timeouts, tokio::time::timeout(dur, fut) is simpler.

Streaming progress — Channel<T> beats polling

For "task running, push updates to JS", prefer tauri::ipc::Channel<T> over emit+listen events. Channels are:

• typed per-call (no global event-name collisions)
• backpressured per-receiver
• automatically cleaned up when JS drops the channel

#[derive(Clone, serde::Serialize)]
#[serde(tag = "type", rename_all = "camelCase")]
enum Progress {
    Started   { total: u64 },
    Tick      { done: u64 },
    Finished,
    Failed    { message: String },
}

#[tauri::command]
async fn process(
    paths: Vec<String>,
    on_event: tauri::ipc::Channel<Progress>,
) -> Result<(), AppError> {
    let total = paths.len() as u64;
    on_event.send(Progress::Started { total }).ok();
    for (i, p) in paths.iter().enumerate() {
        do_one(p).await?;
        on_event.send(Progress::Tick { done: (i + 1) as u64 }).ok();
    }
    on_event.send(Progress::Finished).ok();
    Ok(())
}

JS side:

import { Channel, invoke } from '@tauri-apps/api/core';
const ch = new Channel<Progress>();
ch.onmessage = (msg) => { /* dispatch on msg.type */ };
await invoke('process', { paths, onEvent: ch });

Use emit/listen only when multiple windows or unrelated consumers need the same stream. For single-caller progress, channel.

Anti-patterns

std::sync::Mutex held across .await

Covered in [[tauri-commands-state-injection]] — the textbook cause of sporadic, load-dependent deadlocks. clippy::await_holding_lock catches it; turn it on in Cargo.toml:

[lints.clippy]
await_holding_lock = "deny"

Holding even a tokio::Mutex guard longer than needed

tokio::Mutex is safe across awaits but slow. Pattern: extract the data, drop the guard, await on the data.

// SLOW — serializes every concurrent caller behind the network round-trip
let mut q = state.queue.lock().await;
let r = http_post(&q.endpoint).await?;
q.history.push(r);

// FAST — lock only what needs the lock
let endpoint = { state.queue.lock().await.endpoint.clone() };
let r = http_post(&endpoint).await?;
state.queue.lock().await.history.push(r);

Spawning without capturing AppHandle

You can't app.state::<T>() from a detached tokio::spawn without an AppHandle. Always clone it before the spawn boundary.

CPU work in an async fn

Blocks the tokio worker thread. Wrap with spawn_blocking:

let result = tokio::task::spawn_blocking(move || expensive_pure_cpu(input)).await?;

Templates

• templates/async-task.rs — cancellable long-running command with CancellationToken in state, tokio::select! cancellation, and a Channel<Progress> for live updates. Drop into src-tauri/src/.