sdax 0.1.1

A lightweight, high-performance, in-process micro-orchestrator for structured, declarative, and parallel asynchronous tasks in Python.

sdax - Structured Declarative Async eXecution

sdax is a lightweight, high-performance, in-process micro-orchestrator for Python's asyncio. It is designed to manage complex, tiered, parallel asynchronous tasks with a declarative API, guaranteeing a correct and predictable order of execution.

It is ideal for building the internal logic of a single, fast operation, such as a complex API endpoint, where multiple dependent I/O calls (to databases, feature flags, or other services) must be reliably initialized, executed, and torn down.

Links:

• 📦 PyPI Package
• 💻 GitHub Repository
• 🐛 Issue Tracker

Key Features

• Structured Lifecycle: Enforces a rigid pre-execute -> execute -> post-execute lifecycle for all tasks.
• Tiered Parallel Execution: Tasks are grouped into integer "levels." All tasks at a given level are executed in parallel, and the framework ensures all tasks at level N complete successfully before level N+1 begins.
• Guaranteed Cleanup: post-execute runs for any task whose pre-execute was started, regardless of whether it succeeded, failed, or was cancelled. This ensures resources are always released.
• Declarative & Flexible: Define tasks as simple data classes. Methods for each phase are optional, and each can have its own timeout and retry configuration.
• Lightweight & Dependency-Free: Runs directly inside your application's event loop with no external dependencies, schedulers, or databases, with minimal overhead (see Performance section for details).

Installation

pip install sdax

Or for development:

git clone https://github.com/owebeeone/sdax.git
cd sdax
pip install -e .

Quick Start

import asyncio
from sdax import AsyncTaskProcessor, AsyncTask, TaskFunction, TaskContext

# 1. Define your task functions
async def check_auth(ctx: TaskContext):
    print("Level 1: Checking authentication...")
    await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
    ctx.data["user_id"] = 123
    print("Auth successful.")

async def load_feature_flags(ctx: TaskContext):
    print("Level 1: Loading feature flags...")
    await asyncio.sleep(0.2)
    ctx.data["flags"] = {"new_api": True}
    print("Flags loaded.")

async def fetch_user_data(ctx: TaskContext):
    print("Level 2: Fetching user data...")
    if not ctx.data.get("user_id"):
        raise ValueError("Auth failed, cannot fetch user data.")
    await asyncio.sleep(0.1)
    print("User data fetched.")

async def close_db_connection(ctx: TaskContext):
    print("Tearing down db connection...")
    await asyncio.sleep(0.05)
    print("Connection closed.")

async def main():
    # 2. Create a processor and a context
    processor = AsyncTaskProcessor()
    ctx = TaskContext()

    # 3. Declaratively define your workflow
    processor.add_task(
        level=1,
        task=AsyncTask(
            name="Authentication",
            pre_execute=TaskFunction(function=check_auth),
            post_execute=TaskFunction(function=close_db_connection)
        )
    )
    processor.add_task(
        level=1,
        task=AsyncTask(
            name="FeatureFlags",
            pre_execute=TaskFunction(function=load_feature_flags)
        )
    )
    processor.add_task(
        level=2,
        task=AsyncTask(
            name="UserData",
            execute=TaskFunction(function=fetch_user_data)
        )
    )

    # 4. Run the processor
    try:
        await processor.process_tasks(ctx)
        print("\nWorkflow completed successfully!")
    except* Exception as e:
        print(f"\nWorkflow failed: {e.exceptions[0]}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Important: Cleanup Guarantees & Resource Management

⚠️ Critical Behavior: post_execute runs for any task whose pre_execute was started, even if:

• pre_execute raised an exception
• pre_execute was cancelled (due to a sibling task failure)
• pre_execute timed out

This is by design for resource management. If your pre_execute acquires resources (opens files, database connections, locks), your post_execute must be idempotent and handle partial initialization.

Example: Safe Resource Management

async def acquire_lock(ctx: TaskContext):
    ctx.data["lock"] = await some_lock.acquire()
    # If cancelled here, lock is acquired but flag not set
    ctx.data["lock_acquired"] = True

async def release_lock(ctx: TaskContext):
    # ✅ GOOD: Check if we actually acquired the lock
    if ctx.data.get("lock_acquired"):
        await ctx.data["lock"].release()
    # ✅ GOOD: Or use try/except for safety
    try:
        if "lock" in ctx.data:
            await ctx.data["lock"].release()
    except Exception:
        pass  # Already released or never acquired

Why this matters: In parallel execution, if one task fails, all other tasks in that level are cancelled. Without guaranteed cleanup, you'd leak resources.

Execution Model

The "Elevator" Pattern

Tasks execute in a strict "elevator up, elevator down" pattern:

Level 1: [A-pre, B-pre, C-pre] ─┐
                                 ├─→ (parallel)
Level 2: [D-pre, E-pre] ────────┘
                                 ├─→ (parallel)  
Execute: [A-exec, B-exec, D-exec, E-exec] ─┘
                                 
Teardown: ┌─ [D-post, E-post] (parallel)
          └─ [A-post, B-post, C-post] (parallel)

Key Rules:

1. Within a level, tasks run in parallel
2. Levels execute sequentially (level N+1 waits for level N)
3. execute phase runs after all pre_execute phases complete
4. post_execute runs in reverse level order (LIFO)
5. If any task fails, remaining tasks are cancelled but cleanup still runs

Task Phases

Each task can define up to 3 optional phases:

Phase	When It Runs	Purpose	Cleanup Guarantee
pre_execute	First, by level	Initialize resources, setup	post_execute runs if started
execute	After all pre_execute	Do main work	post_execute runs if pre_execute started
post_execute	Last, reverse order	Cleanup, release resources	Always runs if pre_execute started

Performance

Benchmarks (single-threaded, zero-work tasks):

Python Version	Multi-level	Single Large Level	Framework Overhead
Python 3.13	~137,000 tasks/sec	~21,500 tasks/sec	~7µs per task
Python 3.11	~15,000 tasks/sec	~159 tasks/sec	~67µs per task

Python 3.13 has significantly improved asyncio performance compared to 3.11. Benchmarks show 9x better throughput in many scenarios.

Key Observations:

• Multi-level execution: ~79% of raw asyncio performance (Python 3.13)
• Scalability: Tested with 1,000+ tasks across 100 levels
• Real-world performance: For typical I/O-bound tasks (10ms+), framework overhead is <0.1% and negligible

When to use:

• ✅ I/O-bound workflows (database, HTTP, file operations)
• ✅ Complex multi-step operations with dependencies
• ✅ Multiple levels with reasonable task counts (5-50 tasks/level)
• ✅ Tasks where guaranteed cleanup is critical

When NOT to use:

• ❌ CPU-bound work (use ProcessPoolExecutor instead)
• ❌ Single level with 100+ parallel tasks (use raw asyncio.TaskGroup)
• ❌ Simple linear async/await (unnecessary overhead)
• ❌ Ultra high-frequency operations (>100k ops/sec needed)

Use Cases

✅ Perfect For

1. Complex API Endpoints

   Level 1: [Auth, RateLimit, FeatureFlags]  # Parallel
   Level 2: [FetchUser, FetchPermissions]     # Depends on Level 1
   Level 3: [LoadData, ProcessRequest]        # Depends on Level 2
   

2. Data Pipeline Steps

   Level 1: [OpenDBConnection, OpenFileHandle]
   Level 2: [ReadData, TransformData]
   Level 3: [WriteResults]
   Post: Always close connections/files
   

3. Build/Deploy Systems

   Level 1: [CheckoutCode, ValidateConfig]
   Level 2: [RunTests, BuildArtifacts]
   Level 3: [Deploy, NotifySlack]
   

❌ Not Suitable For

• Simple sequential operations (just use await)
• Fire-and-forget background tasks (use asyncio.create_task)
• Distributed workflows (use Celery, Airflow)
• Event-driven systems (use message queues)

Error Handling

Tasks can fail at any phase. The framework:

1. Cancels remaining tasks at the same level
2. Runs cleanup for all tasks that started pre_execute
3. Collects all exceptions into an ExceptionGroup
4. Raises the group after cleanup completes

try:
    await processor.process_tasks(ctx)
except* ValueError as eg:
    # Handle specific exception type
    for exc in eg.exceptions:
        print(f"Validation error: {exc}")
except* TimeoutError as eg:
    # Handle timeouts
    for exc in eg.exceptions:
        print(f"Task timed out: {exc}")
except ExceptionGroup as eg:
    # Handle all errors
    print(f"Multiple failures: {eg}")

Advanced Features

Per-Task Configuration

Each task function can have its own timeout and retry settings:

AsyncTask(
    name="FlakeyAPI",
    execute=TaskFunction(
        function=call_external_api,
        timeout=5.0,        # 5 second timeout
        retries=3,          # Retry 3 times
        backoff_factor=2.0  # Exponential backoff: 2s, 4s, 8s
    )
)

Shared Context

The TaskContext is shared across all tasks and phases:

async def task_a(ctx: TaskContext):
    ctx.data["user_id"] = 123  # Set data

async def task_b(ctx: TaskContext):
    user_id = ctx.data["user_id"]  # Read data from task_a

Note: The context is shared but not thread-safe. Since tasks run in a single asyncio event loop, no locking is needed.

Testing

Run the test suite:

pytest tests/ -v

Performance benchmarks:

python tests/test_performance.py -v

Monte Carlo stress testing (runs ~2,750 tasks with random failures):

python tests/test_monte_carlo.py -v

Comparison to Alternatives

Feature	sdax	Celery	Airflow	Raw asyncio
Setup complexity	Minimal	High	Very High	None
External dependencies	None	Redis/RabbitMQ	PostgreSQL/MySQL	None
Throughput	~137k tasks/sec	~500 tasks/sec	~50 tasks/sec	~174k ops/sec
Overhead	~7µs/task	Varies	High	Minimal
Use case	In-process workflows	Distributed tasks	Complex DAGs	Simple async
Guaranteed cleanup	✅ Yes	❌ No	❌ No	Manual
Level-based execution	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Yes	Manual

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.