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Durable Execution on Postgres

The protocol as a schema of stored functions — one SQL file, and the database you already run becomes the server.

Apache 2.0Built by Resonate HQ

Load a single SQL file into a Postgres 16+ database and the protocol lives inside it. Storage, queue and timer are all the database: 58 stored functions carry the protocol actions, and pg_cron wakes the timers.

One protocol, many providers

Postgres is now a durable-execution provider.

Any platform that can provide durable storage and an atomic compare-and-swap can implement the durable execution protocol. Postgres implements it natively, in its own primitives.

Why Postgres

The database is the server, not the storage.

Every action is a stored function

The core server supports Postgres — you run a binary and Postgres holds its state. This is the other arrangement: there is no binary. Every protocol action is a stored function, so the thing you operate and the thing you back up are the same thing.

Timers and delivery, in-database

pg_cron drives the timers, so a durable sleep is a row with a deadline. The invocation returns and the database wakes the worker when there is something to do. Outbound delivery is optional — add pg_net or pgsql_http and the database pushes; leave them out and workers poll.

SQL-native

Workers talk to it in SQL, not HTTP.

There is no server process to host an HTTP interface, so workers reach the protocol through a single function over a database connection. That needs a client that speaks SQL. TypeScript has one today, @resonatehq/supabase, and it is pre-1.0 — expect its surface to move. If you need another language, tell us what your stack runs when you sign up.

psql -d yourdb -f resonate.sql

What's true today

Here’s exactly where it stands.

License: Apache 2.0 — the same license as the core server, with no production-use restriction.
Maturity: The youngest of the four implementations. The protocol is implemented end to end and search works, but the repository ships no test suite of its own — only a conformance shim an external harness drives — nothing runs it on push, and the tracker carries open correctness issues against task leasing and settlement. If the cron job is unscheduled, durable sleeps stop waking and nothing surfaces the failure. No production reference deployments yet.
SDK support: TypeScript only. The other Resonate SDKs have no client that can reach the protocol inside the database yet, and each is tracked as an open issue.
Authentication: Postgres's own. The schema revokes access from PUBLIC and ships a dedicated worker role with a minimal grant surface, so the database connection is the security boundary.
Requirements: Postgres 16+ with pg_cron, which drives every timer. pg_net or pgsql_http is optional and enables HTTP push delivery to your workers.
Ownership: Built and maintained by Resonate HQ. Postgres itself is unmodified — this is a schema you load, not a fork or a patched build.

Run durable execution inside your database.

One SQL file, loaded into a database you already back up. Sign up and we'll help you get it running.

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