What causes "asynq: %w" in hibiken/asynq?

Confirm the task ID matches one returned by Enqueue and that the queue name is correct.

asynq

Error message

asynq: %w

What it means

GetTaskInfo returns an error wrapping ErrTaskNotFound when the queue exists but no task with the given id is found in it. The asynq: prefix marks the library as the source. Detect it with errors.Is(err, asynq.ErrTaskNotFound).

Solutions

Confirm the task ID matches one returned by Enqueue and that the queue name is correct.
Check task lifecycle: if retention was set, the task is removed after completion; treat ErrTaskNotFound as a normal post-completion outcome.
List tasks (ListPendingTasks etc.) or use Inspector.GetTaskInfo on the correct queue to verify the ID exists.

Example fix

// before
info, err := inspector.GetTaskInfo("default", staleID)
// after
info, err := inspector.GetTaskInfo("default", taskID)
if errors.Is(err, asynq.ErrTaskNotFound) {
    return nil, fmt.Errorf("task %s no longer exists (already completed or pruned)", taskID)
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

info, err := inspector.GetTaskInfo(q, id)
if errors.Is(err, asynq.ErrTaskNotFound) {
    // treat as normal: task completed/pruned or wrong id
}

Prevention

Set an appropriate retention when enqueuing if you need post-completion lookups
Never cache task IDs across restarts without revalidation
Match the queue name to the one used at Enqueue time

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Inspector.GetTaskInfo(queue, id) with an id for a task that was already processed and removed, never existed, or exists in a different queue; rdb.GetTaskInfo returns TaskNotFound wrapped at inspector.go:247.

Common situations: Looking up a task after it completed and was pruned (retention expired); using a task ID from another queue; caching a stale task ID across restarts.

Understand the failure class

Background: Record Not Found Errors: "not found", RecordNotFound, and "was not found" — what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hibiken/asynq@d135f1439b (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1930ffe1198f3f72. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at inspector.go:247

		return fmt.Errorf("%w: queue=%q", ErrQueueNotFound, queue)
	}
	if errors.IsQueueNotEmpty(err) {
		return fmt.Errorf("%w: queue=%q", ErrQueueNotEmpty, queue)
	}
	return err
}

// GetTaskInfo retrieves task information given a task id and queue name.
//
// Returns an error wrapping ErrQueueNotFound if a queue with the given name doesn't exist.
// Returns an error wrapping ErrTaskNotFound if a task with the given id doesn't exist in the queue.
func (i *Inspector) GetTaskInfo(queue, id string) (*TaskInfo, error) {
	info, err := i.rdb.GetTaskInfo(queue, id)
	switch {
	case errors.IsQueueNotFound(err):
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("asynq: %w", ErrQueueNotFound)
	case errors.IsTaskNotFound(err):
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("asynq: %w", ErrTaskNotFound)
	case err != nil:
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("asynq: %w", err)
	}
	return newTaskInfo(info.Message, info.State, info.NextProcessAt, info.Result), nil
}

// ListOption specifies behavior of list operation.
type ListOption interface{}

// Internal list option representations.
type (
	pageSizeOpt int
	pageNumOpt  int
)

type listOption struct {
	pageSize int
	pageNum  int

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