Job services in porter.yaml

Job services are for scheduled or on-demand tasks that run to completion. They’re ideal for cron jobs, data processing, and one-time tasks. This is a complete reference for all fields that can be set for a job service in porter.yaml.

Field Reference

Field	Type	Required	Description
`name`	string	Yes	Service identifier (max 31 chars)
`type`	string	Yes	Must be `job`
`run`	string	Yes	Command to execute
`cpuCores`	number	Yes	CPU allocation
`ramMegabytes`	integer	Yes	Memory allocation in MB
`cron`	string	No	Cron schedule expression
`suspendCron`	boolean	No	Temporarily disable cron schedule
`allowConcurrent`	boolean	No	Allow concurrent job runs
`timeoutSeconds`	integer	No	Maximum job duration
`connections`	array	No	External cloud connections
`terminationGracePeriodSeconds`	integer	No	Graceful shutdown timeout
`gpuCoresNvidia`	integer	No	NVIDIA GPU cores
`nodeGroup`	string	No	Node group UUID

Basic Example

services:
  - name: cleanup
    type: job
    run: npm run cleanup
    cpuCores: 0.25
    ramMegabytes: 256
    cron: "0 0 * * *"

`cron`

string Optional A cron expression that defines when the job should run. Uses standard 5-field cron syntax.

cron: "0 0 * * *"

If no cron expression is provided, the job will default to run every 5 minutes.

`suspendCron`

boolean Optional Disable the cron schedule without removing it. The job won’t run on schedule but can still be triggered manually.

suspendCron: true

Use this to pause scheduled jobs during maintenance windows or while debugging, or to create one-off jobs.

`allowConcurrent`

boolean Optional Allow multiple instances of the job to run simultaneously. By default, a new job run won’t start if a previous run is still in progress.

allowConcurrent: true

Be careful enabling this for jobs that modify shared resources. Concurrent runs may cause race conditions or data inconsistency.

`timeoutSeconds`

integer Optional Maximum number of seconds the job is allowed to run before being terminated.

timeoutSeconds: 3600

If not specified, jobs may run indefinitely. It’s recommended to set a reasonable timeout for all jobs.

`connections`

array Optional Connect to external cloud services. See Connections Configuration for full documentation.

`terminationGracePeriodSeconds`

integer Optional Seconds to wait for graceful shutdown before forcefully terminating the job.

terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 30

Use this to ensure jobs can clean up resources or checkpoint progress before termination.

`gpuCoresNvidia`

integer Optional Allocate NVIDIA GPU cores for ML training, inference, or GPU-accelerated processing.

gpuCoresNvidia: 1
nodeGroup: gpu-node-group-uuid

Requires a node group with GPU-enabled instances.

Triggering Jobs Manually

Jobs can be triggered manually using the Porter CLI:

# Trigger a job run
porter app run my-app --job my-job

# Trigger and wait for completion
porter app run my-app --job my-job --wait

# Override concurrent restriction
porter app run my-app --job my-job --allow-concurrent

Complete Example

services:
  - name: daily-report
    type: job
    run: python generate_report.py
    cpuCores: 1
    ramMegabytes: 2048

    # Schedule: Daily at 6 AM UTC
    cron: "0 6 * * *"

    # Allow up to 2 hours
    timeoutSeconds: 7200

    # Don't allow concurrent runs
    allowConcurrent: false

    # Cloud connections
    connections:
      - type: awsRole
        role: report-s3-access

    # Graceful shutdown
    terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 60

Common Use Cases

Database Cleanup

services:
  - name: db-cleanup
    type: job
    run: npm run cleanup-old-records
    cpuCores: 0.25
    ramMegabytes: 256
    cron: "0 3 * * *"  # 3 AM daily
    timeoutSeconds: 1800
    allowConcurrent: false

Data Export

services:
  - name: weekly-export
    type: job
    run: python export_data.py
    cpuCores: 0.5
    ramMegabytes: 1024
    cron: "0 0 * * 0"  # Sunday at midnight
    timeoutSeconds: 14400  # 4 hours
    connections:
      - type: awsRole
        role: s3-export-role

ML Training Job

services:
  - name: model-training
    type: job
    run: python train.py
    cpuCores: 8
    ramMegabytes: 32768
    gpuCoresNvidia: 4
    nodeGroup: gpu-node-group-uuid
    timeoutSeconds: 86400  # 24 hours
    terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 300

Health Check / Monitoring

services:
  - name: healthcheck
    type: job
    run: ./check_dependencies.sh
    cpuCores: 0.1
    ramMegabytes: 128
    cron: "*/5 * * * *"  # Every 5 minutes
    timeoutSeconds: 60
    allowConcurrent: false

Manual Migration Job

services:
  - name: data-migration
    type: job
    run: python migrate.py
    cpuCores: 2
    ramMegabytes: 4096
    suspendCron: true  # otherwise, the job will run every 5 minutes by default
    timeoutSeconds: 28800  # 8 hours
    allowConcurrent: false
    terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 120

Jobs suspendCront: true must be triggered manually using porter app run --job.

​Field Reference

​Basic Example

​cron

​suspendCron

​allowConcurrent

​timeoutSeconds

​connections

​terminationGracePeriodSeconds

​gpuCoresNvidia

​Triggering Jobs Manually

​Complete Example

​Common Use Cases

​Database Cleanup

​Data Export

​ML Training Job

​Health Check / Monitoring

​Manual Migration Job

Field Reference

Basic Example

`cron`

`suspendCron`

`allowConcurrent`

`timeoutSeconds`

`connections`

`terminationGracePeriodSeconds`

`gpuCoresNvidia`

Triggering Jobs Manually

Complete Example

Common Use Cases

Database Cleanup

Data Export

ML Training Job

Health Check / Monitoring

Manual Migration Job