# earendil-works/absurd

An experiment in durability

Repository: https://github.com/earendil-works/absurd
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/absurd
Homepage: https://earendil-works.github.io/absurd
Language: Python
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-08-10T17:23:16+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 82/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 97, release rhythm 96, longevity 22
- inputs: {"age_days": 317, "days_push": 23, "days_rel": 29, "gap_med": 14, "n_releases_24m": 14}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2384, forks 111 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:42.365499+00:00)

## What it is
Absurd is a Postgres-native durable execution (workflow) system that runs long-lived, reliable tasks using only a single SQL schema file and no additional services. It provides lightweight SDKs for TypeScript, Python, and Go, with step checkpointing, retries, sleeps, and race-free event handling.

## Use cases
- run long-lived workflows that survive crashes and restarts
- process payments and orders with exactly-once semantics
- schedule and retry background tasks without a message broker
- build LLM agent pipelines that can suspend and resume
- implement delayed email or notification scheduling
- replace Temporal or Cadence with a simpler Postgres-only setup

## When to choose
- you already run Postgres and want durable workflows with zero extra infrastructure
- you need retries, checkpointing, sleeps, and event waiting for long-running tasks
- you prefer a pull-based worker model with lightweight language-agnostic SDKs

## When to avoid
- you need push-based task delivery to HTTP endpoints
- you require a coordinator, rich UI, or advanced orchestration features of Temporal/Cadence
- your workload is not backed by Postgres

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: active
- function: workflow-automation, scheduling, message-queue, database, concurrency
- domain: backend, microservices, developer-tools, databases
- platform: python, go, self-hosted
- tags: durable-execution, postgres, workflow-engine, task-queue, retries, step-functions, sdk, automation, nodejs, docker

## Member repositories
- earendil-works/absurd (main) score 82

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:42.365499+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:34:39.790124+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/earendil-works/absurd (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:42.365499+00:00, sha ed68874cc5f6)
  - homepage: https://earendil-works.github.io/absurd (fetched 2026-08-29T10:15:30.662562+00:00, sha a68870a23a89)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.