FastAPI Background Tasks Dashboard

A simple and lightweight open-source dashboard to see what your FastAPI background tasks are doing in real time.

Just one line to get your dashboard running — mount that dashboard on your FastAPI app and you’re done:

from fastapi import FastAPI
from fastapi_bgtasks_dashboard import mount_bg_tasks_dashboard

app = FastAPI()

# Add dashboard for background tasks
mount_bg_tasks_dashboard(app=app)

Why this project?

FastAPI has a built-in BackgroundTasks feature that lets you run things after sending a response. But

• You don’t get a live view of what tasks are running.
• You don’t know when they start or finish.
• If something fails, there’s no quick way to check.
• If some tasks run without you noticing then your resources may exhaust.

This project was built to fill that gap.

Now you can have a clean, lightweight dashboard to watch your background jobs, with no external services or heavy dependencies.

Installation

pip install fastapi-bgtasks-dashboard

Quick Usage Example

Create a file main.py and install dependencies

pip install fastapi uvicorn
pip install fastapi-bgtasks-dashboard

Add the following code to main.py

from fastapi import FastAPI, BackgroundTasks
from fastapi_bgtasks_dashboard import mount_bg_tasks_dashboard

app = FastAPI()

# Add dashboard for background tasks
mount_bg_tasks_dashboard(app=app)

def simple_task(name: str):
    import time
    print(f"Started task for {name}")
    time.sleep(20)
    print(f"Finished task for {name}")

@app.get("/hello/{name}")
async def say_hello(name: str, background_tasks: BackgroundTasks):
    background_tasks.add_task(simple_task, name)
    return {"message": f"Hello {name}, task started in background!"}

Run the server with:

uvicorn main:app --reload

Now open your browser at: 👉 http://localhost:8000/dashboard

You’ll see a live dashboard of all background tasks.

Features & Roadmap

• Persistent storage support (SQLite, Postgres, etc.)
• Export tasks to JSON/CSV
• Real-time updates (via WebSocket)
• Sortable columns (default: newest first)
• Filter by function name or status
• Paginate after 100 tasks for smooth performance
• Display task duration in ms / s / m / h
• Show task parameters
• Run tasks again with one click
• Clear all in-memory tasks instantly
• Lightweight in-memory storage (no database required)

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Whether it's fixing bugs, improving the dashboard, or adding new features, you can help make this project better.

How to Contribute

1. Clone the repository

   git clone git@github.com:Harshil-Jani/fastapi-bgtasks-dashboard.git
   cd fastapi-bgtasks-dashboard
   

2. Install the package locally

   pip install -e .
   

   This command installs the package in editable mode, so any changes you make locally will be immediately reflected.

3. Run the example usage script

   There is a usage.py file that demonstrates how to use the dashboard. Install fastapi and uvicorn to run this script.

   pip install fastapi uvicorn
   

   uvicorn usage:app --reload
   

   You can then test your changes by opening your browser to http://localhost:8000/dashboard.

4. Make your changes

   • Fix bugs
   • Add new features
   • Improve documentation

5. Submit a Pull Request

   Once you're happy with your changes, commit them with a clear message and open a pull request against the main branch. We'll review it and merge it if everything looks good.

Note: This project is designed to be lightweight and easy to use, so please keep new features aligned with this philosophy whenever possible.

License

MIT – Free to use and improve. Made with ❤️ for the open-source community.