Quick Start

Get up and running with Dagu in under 2 minutes.

Install Dagu

npm

npm install -g dagu

macOS/Linux

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dagu-org/dagu/main/scripts/installer.sh | bash

Docker

docker pull ghcr.io/dagu-org/dagu:latest

Homebrew

brew install dagu-org/brew/dagu

See Installation Guide for more options.

Your First Workflow

1. Create a workflow

Binary

mkdir -p ~/.config/dagu/dags && cat > ~/.config/dagu/dags/hello.yaml << 'EOF'
steps:
  - name: hello
    command: echo "Hello from Dagu!"
    
  - name: world
    command: echo "Running step 2"
EOF

Docker

mkdir -p ~/.dagu/dags && cat > ~/.dagu/dags/hello.yaml << 'EOF'
steps:
  - name: hello
    command: echo "Hello from Dagu!"
    
  - name: world
    command: echo "Running step 2"
EOF

2. Run it

Binary

Binary

dagu start hello

Docker

docker run --rm \
  -v ~/.dagu:/var/lib/dagu \
  ghcr.io/dagu-org/dagu:latest \
  dagu start hello

Output:

┌─ DAG: hello ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Status: Success ✓           | Started: 23:34:57 | Elapsed: 471ms │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Progress: ████████████████████████████████████████ 100% (2/2 steps)

Note: The output may vary if you are using Docker.

3. Check the status

Binary

dagu status hello

Docker

docker run --rm \
  -v ~/.dagu:/var/lib/dagu \
  ghcr.io/dagu-org/dagu:latest \
  dagu status hello

4. View in the UI

Binary

dagu start-all

Docker

docker run -d \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v ~/.dagu:/var/lib/dagu \
  ghcr.io/dagu-org/dagu:latest \
  dagu start-all

Open http://localhost:8080

Understanding Workflows

A workflow is a YAML file that defines steps and their dependencies:

steps:
  - name: step1
    command: echo "First step"
    
  - name: step2
    command: echo "Second step"  # Runs after step1 automatically

Key concepts:

• Steps: Individual tasks that run commands
• Dependencies: Control execution order
• Commands: Any shell command you can run

Practical Example

Here's a practical backup workflow:

# backup.yaml
name: daily-backup
params:
  - SOURCE: /data
  - DEST: /backup

steps:
  - name: timestamp
    command: date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S
    output: TS
    
  - name: backup
    command: tar -czf ${DEST}/backup_${TS}.tar.gz ${SOURCE}
    
  - name: cleanup
    command: find ${DEST} -name "backup_*.tar.gz" -mtime +7 -delete

Run with parameters:

dagu start backup.yaml -- SOURCE=/important/data DEST=/backups

Parallel Execution

Run steps concurrently by specifying the same dependencies:

steps:
  - name: prepare
    command: echo "Starting"
    
  - name: task1
    command: ./process-images.sh
    depends: prepare
    
  - name: task2
    command: ./process-videos.sh
    depends: prepare
    
  - name: task3
    command: ./process-docs.sh
    depends: prepare
    
  - name: combine
    command: ./merge-results.sh
    depends: [task1, task2, task3]

Error Handling

Add retries and error handlers:

steps:
  - name: download
    command: curl -f https://example.com/data.zip -o data.zip
    retryPolicy:
      limit: 3
      intervalSec: 30
      
  - name: process
    command: unzip data.zip && ./process.sh
    continueOn:
      failure: true  # Continue even if this fails
      
handlerOn:
  failure:
    command: echo "Workflow failed!" | mail -s "Alert" [email protected]
  success:
    command: echo "Success at $(date)"

Scheduling

Run workflows automatically:

name: nightly-job
schedule: "0 2 * * *"  # 2 AM daily

steps:
  - name: run
    command: ./nightly-process.sh

The workflow will execute every day at 2 AM.

What's Next?

• Core Concepts - Understand Dagu's architecture
• Writing Workflows - Learn advanced features
• Examples - Ready-to-use workflow patterns
• CLI Reference - All command options