oban-designer

name	oban-designer
description	Design and implement Oban background job workers for Elixir. Configure queues, retry strategies, uniqueness constraints, cron scheduling, and error handling. Generate Oban workers, queue config, and test setups. Use when adding background jobs, async processing, scheduled tasks, or recurring cron jobs to an Elixir project using Oban.

Oban Designer

Installation

# mix.exs
{:oban, "~> 2.18"}

# config/config.exs
config :my_app, Oban,
  repo: MyApp.Repo,
  queues: [default: 10, mailers: 20, webhooks: 50, events: 5],
  plugins: [
    Oban.Plugins.Pruner,
    {Oban.Plugins.Cron, crontab: [
      {"0 2 * * *", MyApp.Workers.DailyCleanup},
      {"*/5 * * * *", MyApp.Workers.MetricsCollector}
    ]}
  ]

# In application.ex children:
{Oban, Application.fetch_env!(:my_app, Oban)}

Generate the Oban migrations:

mix ecto.gen.migration add_oban_jobs_table

defmodule MyApp.Repo.Migrations.AddObanJobsTable do
  use Ecto.Migration
  def up, do: Oban.Migration.up(version: 12)
  def down, do: Oban.Migration.down(version: 1)
end

Worker Implementation

Basic Worker

defmodule MyApp.Workers.SendEmail do
  use Oban.Worker,
    queue: :mailers,
    max_attempts: 5,
    priority: 1

  @impl Oban.Worker
  def perform(%Oban.Job{args: %{"to" => to, "template" => template} = args}) do
    case MyApp.Mailer.deliver(to, template, args) do
      {:ok, _} -> :ok
      {:error, :temporary} -> {:error, "temporary failure"}  # Will retry
      {:error, :permanent} -> {:cancel, "invalid address"}   # Won't retry
    end
  end
end

Return Values

Return	Effect
:ok	Job marked complete
{:ok, result}	Job marked complete
{:error, reason}	Job retried (counts as attempt)
{:cancel, reason}	Job cancelled, no more retries
{:snooze, seconds}	Re-scheduled, doesn't count as attempt
{:discard, reason}	Job discarded (Oban 2.17+)

Queue Configuration

See references/worker-patterns.md for common worker patterns.

Sizing Guidelines

Queue	Concurrency	Use Case
default	10	General-purpose
mailers	20	Email delivery (I/O bound)
webhooks	50	Webhook delivery (I/O bound, high volume)
media	5	Image/video processing (CPU bound)
events	5	Analytics, audit logs
critical	3	Billing, payments

Queue Priority

Jobs within a queue execute by priority (0 = highest). Use sparingly:

%{user_id: user.id}
|> MyApp.Workers.SendEmail.new(priority: 0)  # Urgent
|> Oban.insert()

Retry Strategies

Default Backoff

Oban uses exponential backoff: attempt^4 + attempt seconds.

Custom Backoff

defmodule MyApp.Workers.WebhookDelivery do
  use Oban.Worker,
    queue: :webhooks,
    max_attempts: 10

  @impl Oban.Worker
  def backoff(%Oban.Job{attempt: attempt}) do
    # Exponential with jitter: 2^attempt + random(0..30)
    trunc(:math.pow(2, attempt)) + :rand.uniform(30)
  end

  @impl Oban.Worker
  def perform(%Oban.Job{args: args}) do
    # ...
  end
end

Timeout

use Oban.Worker, queue: :media

@impl Oban.Worker
def timeout(%Oban.Job{args: %{"size" => "large"}}), do: :timer.minutes(10)
def timeout(_job), do: :timer.minutes(2)

Uniqueness

Prevent duplicate jobs:

defmodule MyApp.Workers.SyncAccount do
  use Oban.Worker,
    queue: :default,
    unique: [
      period: 300,               # 5 minutes
      states: [:available, :scheduled, :executing, :retryable],
      keys: [:account_id]        # Unique by this arg key
    ]
end

Unique Options

Option	Default	Description
period	60	Seconds to enforce uniqueness (:infinity for forever)
states	all active	Which job states to check
keys	all args	Specific arg keys to compare
timestamp	:inserted_at	Use :scheduled_at for scheduled uniqueness

Replace Existing

%{account_id: id}
|> MyApp.Workers.SyncAccount.new(
  replace: [:scheduled_at],    # Update scheduled_at if duplicate
  schedule_in: 60
)
|> Oban.insert()

Cron Scheduling

# config.exs
plugins: [
  {Oban.Plugins.Cron, crontab: [
    {"0 */6 * * *", MyApp.Workers.DigestEmail},
    {"0 2 * * *", MyApp.Workers.DailyCleanup},
    {"0 0 1 * *", MyApp.Workers.MonthlyReport},
    {"*/5 * * * *", MyApp.Workers.HealthCheck, args: %{service: "api"}},
  ]}
]

Cron expressions: minute hour day_of_month month day_of_week.

Inserting Jobs

# Immediate
%{user_id: user.id, template: "welcome"}
|> MyApp.Workers.SendEmail.new()
|> Oban.insert()

# Scheduled
%{report_id: id}
|> MyApp.Workers.GenerateReport.new(schedule_in: 3600)
|> Oban.insert()

# Scheduled at specific time
%{report_id: id}
|> MyApp.Workers.GenerateReport.new(scheduled_at: ~U[2024-01-01 00:00:00Z])
|> Oban.insert()

# Bulk insert
changesets = Enum.map(users, fn user ->
  MyApp.Workers.SendEmail.new(%{user_id: user.id})
end)
Oban.insert_all(changesets)

# Inside Ecto.Multi
Ecto.Multi.new()
|> Ecto.Multi.insert(:user, changeset)
|> Oban.insert(:welcome_email, fn %{user: user} ->
  MyApp.Workers.SendEmail.new(%{user_id: user.id})
end)
|> Repo.transaction()

Oban Pro Features

Available with Oban Pro license:

Batch (group of jobs)

# Process items in batch, run callback when all complete
batch = MyApp.Workers.ProcessItem.new_batch(
  items |> Enum.map(&%{item_id: &1.id}),
  callback: {MyApp.Workers.BatchComplete, %{batch_name: "import"}}
)
Oban.insert_all(batch)

Workflow (job dependencies)

Oban.Pro.Workflow.new()
|> Oban.Pro.Workflow.add(:extract, MyApp.Workers.Extract.new(%{file: path}))
|> Oban.Pro.Workflow.add(:transform, MyApp.Workers.Transform.new(%{}), deps: [:extract])
|> Oban.Pro.Workflow.add(:load, MyApp.Workers.Load.new(%{}), deps: [:transform])
|> Oban.insert_all()

Chunk (aggregate multiple jobs)

defmodule MyApp.Workers.BulkIndex do
  use Oban.Pro.Workers.Chunk,
    queue: :indexing,
    size: 100,            # Process 100 at a time
    timeout: 30_000       # Or after 30s

  @impl true
  def process(jobs) do
    items = Enum.map(jobs, & &1.args)
    SearchIndex.bulk_upsert(items)
    :ok
  end
end

Testing

See references/testing-oban.md for detailed testing patterns.

Setup

# config/test.exs
config :my_app, Oban,
  testing: :manual  # or :inline for synchronous execution

# test_helper.exs (if using :manual)
Oban.Testing.start()

Asserting Job Enqueued

use Oban.Testing, repo: MyApp.Repo

test "enqueues welcome email on signup" do
  {:ok, user} = Accounts.register(%{email: "[e-mail]"})

  assert_enqueued worker: MyApp.Workers.SendEmail,
    args: %{user_id: user.id, template: "welcome"},
    queue: :mailers
end

Executing Jobs in Tests

test "processes email delivery" do
  {:ok, _} =
    perform_job(MyApp.Workers.SendEmail, %{
      "to" => "[e-mail]",
      "template" => "welcome"
    })
end

Monitoring

Telemetry Events

# Attach in application.ex
:telemetry.attach_many("oban-logger", [
  [:oban, :job, :start],
  [:oban, :job, :stop],
  [:oban, :job, :exception]
], &MyApp.ObanTelemetry.handle_event/4, %{})

Key Metrics to Track

• Job execution duration (p50, p95, p99)
• Queue depth (available jobs per queue)
• Error rate per worker
• Retry rate per worker