Creating Pull Queues

This page describes how to create a pull queue. You must create the queue before you can add tasks to it. The page also describes how to pause or delete a queue.

This API is supported for first-generation runtimes and can be used when upgrading to corresponding second-generation runtimes. If you are updating to the App Engine Java 11/17 runtime, refer to the migration guide to learn about your migration options for legacy bundled services.

Defining queues with queue.yaml

You can define pull queues using the queue.yaml file for your application. The process is the same as creating named push queues, with a specialized directive, mode: pull, added to the file.

queue:
- name: my-queue-name
  mode: pull

You use the gcloud CLI gcloud command to upload the file.

gcloud app deploy queue.yaml

Note: If you are using a service account to manage authentication for deploying your queue configuration file, it needs to have the serviceusage.services.list permission. This permission can be added either using the serviceusage.serviceUsageViewer role or by creating a custom role with that permission.

Caution: Queue creation for the Task Queue service can also be managed using Queue Management methods available directly through the Cloud Tasks API, but mixing the queue.yaml upload method with Queue Management methods can produce unexpected results and is not recommended. For more information, see Overview of Queue Management and queue.yaml. Also note that uploading a queue.yaml file via the gcloud CLI below version 332.0.0 uses a deprecated interface to the service. Starting on 2022-09-20, attempts to use the upload method can fail with server errors. To resolve this, make sure the Cloud Tasks API is enabled in your project and your gcloud CLI is updated to at least version 332.0.0.

Disabling queues

You can disable, or pause, a queue by removing its definition from your queue configuration file and then uploading the updated file.

Once the updated file is uploaded, the queue is set to "disabled" and its rate is set to 0. Any tasks that are in the queue or new tasks that are added to the queue will not be processed. You can re-enable the disabled queue by uploading a new queue file with the queue defined.

You can also pause a queue from within the Cloud Tasks page in the Google Cloud console.

Deleting queues

To delete a queue you must first disable it:

1. Remove the queue definition from your queue configuration file.

2. Upload the changed file.

   gcloud app deploy queue.yaml
   

Once the queue is disabled, use the Google Cloud console to delete it.

1. In the Google Cloud console, select the queue.

   Go to Cloud Tasks

2. Click Delete queue.

If you delete a queue from the Google Cloud console, you must wait 7 days before recreating with the same name.

Important: The local development server (dev_appserver) does not support pull queues. To test your pull queues and make sure you have the details of your configuration correct, you'll need to push your queue configuration file to an App Engine staging environment.

What's next

Learn how to create tasks.