Async execution - Anchor Browser Docs

By default, task execution is synchronous — the API call waits for the task to complete before returning results. For long-running tasks, you can use asynchronous execution to start the task and check results later.

Running tasks asynchronously

When you set async: true, the API returns immediately with a confirmation that the task has started. You can then poll for execution results using the task execution history endpoint.

// Run the task asynchronously
const execution = await client.task.run({
  taskId: taskId,
  version: '1',
  async: true, // Enable async execution
  inputs: {
    ANCHOR_TARGET_URL: 'https://example.com',
    ANCHOR_MAX_PAGES: '10'
  }
});

console.log('Task execution started:', execution.data);
// Response: { async: true, success: true, message: 'Task execution started', taskId: '...' }

# Run the task asynchronously
execution = client.task.run(
    task_id=task_id,
    version="1",
    async_=True,  # Enable async execution
    inputs={
        "ANCHOR_TARGET_URL": "https://example.com",
        "ANCHOR_MAX_PAGES": "10"
    }
)

print(f"Task execution started: {execution.data}")
# Response: {'async': True, 'success': True, 'message': 'Task execution started', 'taskId': '...'}

Checking execution results

After starting an async task, you can check its execution status and results by querying the task’s execution history endpoint:

// Get execution results
const response = await fetch(`https://api.anchorbrowser.io/v1/task/${taskId}/executions?page=1&limit=1&version=1`, {
  headers: {
    'anchor-api-key': process.env.ANCHORBROWSER_API_KEY,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  }
});

const results = await response.json();
console.log('Execution results:', results.data);

import os
import requests

# Get execution results
response = requests.get(
    f"https://api.anchorbrowser.io/v1/task/{task_id}/executions",
    params={
  #     "status": "success",  #Optional: filter by status (success, failure, timeout, cancelled)
        "page": 1,
        "limit": 1,
        "version": "1"    # Optional: filter by version
    },
    headers={
        "anchor-api-key": os.environ.get("ANCHORBROWSER_API_KEY"),
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
    }
)

results = response.json()
print(f"Execution results: {results['data']}")

Example response:

{
  "data": {
    "results": [
      {
        "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
        "status": "success",
        "executionTime": 5234,
        "output": "{\"success\": true, \"message\": \"Task completed successfully\"}",
        "errorMessage": null,
        "startTime": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"
      }
    ],
    "pagination": {
      "page": 1,
      "limit": 1,
      "total": 1,
      "totalPages": 1
    }
  }
}

Async task executions have a maximum duration of 3 hours. Tasks that exceed this limit will be automatically cancelled.Note: Tasks must be deployed (not just in draft) to appear in the execution results list.

Polling for results

For async tasks, you can implement polling to wait for completion:

// Poll for task completion
async function waitForTaskCompletion(taskId: string, maxAttempts: number = 60) {
  for (let i = 0; i < maxAttempts; i++) {
    const response = await fetch(`https://api.anchorbrowser.io/v1/task/${taskId}/executions?page=1&limit=1`, {
      headers: {
        'anchor-api-key': process.env.ANCHORBROWSER_API_KEY,
        'Content-Type': 'application/json'
      }
    });
    
    const results = await response.json();
    const latestResult = results.data?.results?.[0];
    if (latestResult) {
      if (latestResult.status === 'success' || latestResult.status === 'failure') {
        return latestResult;
      }
    }
    
    // Wait 2 seconds before next poll
    await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 2000));
  }
  
  throw new Error('Task execution timeout');
}

// Usage
const execution = await client.task.run({
  taskId: taskId,
  version: '1',
  async: true,
  inputs: { ANCHOR_TARGET_URL: 'https://example.com' }
});

const result = await waitForTaskCompletion(taskId);
console.log('Task completed:', result);

import os
import time
import requests

# Poll for task completion
def wait_for_task_completion(task_id: str, max_attempts: int = 60):
    for _ in range(max_attempts):
        response = requests.get(
            f"https://api.anchorbrowser.io/v1/task/{task_id}/executions",
            params={"page": 1, "limit": 1},
            headers={
                "anchor-api-key": os.environ.get("ANCHORBROWSER_API_KEY"),
                "Content-Type": "application/json"
            }
        )
        
        results = response.json()
        latest_result = results['data']['results'][0] if results['data']['results'] else None
        if latest_result:
            if latest_result['status'] in ['success', 'failure']:
                return latest_result
        
        # Wait 2 seconds before next poll
        time.sleep(2)
    
    raise Exception('Task execution timeout')

# Usage
execution = client.task.run(
    task_id=task_id,
    version="1",
    async_=True,
    inputs={"ANCHOR_TARGET_URL": "https://example.com"}
)

result = wait_for_task_completion(task_id)
print(f"Task completed: {result}")

​Running tasks asynchronously

​Checking execution results

​Polling for results

Running tasks asynchronously

Checking execution results

Polling for results