# Hatchet vs Inngest

> Hatchet scores 68.3 (B) to Inngest's 66 (B) for human approval. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-inngest
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-inngest.md (~2,150 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-inngest.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-inngest.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Hatchet scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Inngest's 66 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do human approval.

- Hatchet: grade B, 68.3/100, rank #225 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hatchet.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hatchet.json
- Inngest: grade B, 66/100, rank #304 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inngest.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/inngest.json
- Best human approval and handoff for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/human-in-the-loop/index.md
- All 45 human approval comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/human-in-the-loop/index.md
- Best workflow automation platforms with APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/workflow-automation/index.md
- All 108 workflows comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/workflow-automation/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Hatchet (B)

Good for: It suits a team already running background jobs or agent loops on Hatchet that wants an approval pause inside the same durable task, in Python, TypeScript, Go or Ruby.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 66 against 57
- Agent ergonomics, 82 against 76
- Transparency & trust, 71 against 52

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: No approver inbox, Slack or email channel, routing or reminder. The owner builds the request and the way the answer is pushed

### Inngest (B)

Good for: A TypeScript, Python or Go team that already runs agent steps as durable functions and wants a cheap, long wait for a human answer.

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No reviewer inbox, Slack app or email, so the human side is your code


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Hatchet | Inngest | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 66 | 57 | Hatchet +9 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 89 | Inngest +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 76 | Hatchet +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 60 | Hatchet +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 90 | 88 | Hatchet +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 52 | Hatchet +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68.3 · B** | **66 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Hatchet | Inngest |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | Model platform |
| Vendor | Hatchet Technologies, Inc. | Inngest |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://cloud.hatchet.run` | `https://inn.gs/e/` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | SSPL with delayed Apache-2.0 (server), Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 7 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-09-22 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-07-17 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-18 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Hatchet.** A durable task waits for a keyed event without holding a worker slot, and resumes from its event log after a restart, in Python, TypeScript, Go or Ruby. Hatchet supplies only the pause and resume. It has no approver inbox, notification channel or record of who answered, and its MCP server cannot push the event.

**Inngest.** Waits are durable and cost nothing while suspended, with runs up to 30 days on Free and 366 on Business. No reviewer inbox, Slack app or email, so the human side is your code.

## Before you call either

### Hatchet

1. Put the approval wait in a durable task, and keep API calls, database reads and random values in child tasks, because the code between checkpoints is replayed
2. Add a sleep condition in the same or group as the event condition to set a deadline, and treat the sleep firing first as a timeout
3. Give the event a scope and the wait a lookback window when the answer can arrive before the wait starts. Both must be set together
4. Filter with a CEL expression such as `input.user_id == '1234'` so one approval key cannot resume another request's task
5. Push the answer with the SDK's event push or `POST /api/v1/tenants/{tenant}/events`. The MCP server has no tool for it
6. Grant the MCP server one profile with `hatchet mcp auth --grant <profile>`. It refuses profiles that were not granted

### Inngest

1. Use `step.waitForSignal()` when one run waits for one answer, and `waitForEvent` only when one answer resumes many runs
2. Register the wait before you send the approval request, or check the external state first, since early events are missed
3. Use a unique approval ID per tool call and `match` on it, so parallel approvals resolve independently
4. Treat `null` or `undefined` as a timeout and decide on purpose whether that rejects, approves or escalates
5. Set an event `id` when sending the answer, so a retried send is dropped within 24 hours

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Hatchet or Inngest?

Hatchet scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Inngest's 66 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

### Are Hatchet and Inngest open source?

Hatchet is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Inngest.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-inngest.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-inngest.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "hatchet", "b": "inngest"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare hatchet inngest`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hatchet.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/inngest.json

## Other comparisons with Hatchet or Inngest

- [gotoHuman vs Hatchet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-hatchet.md)
- [gotoHuman vs Inngest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-inngest.md)
- [Hatchet vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-orkes-conductor.md)
- [Hatchet vs Permit MCP Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-permit-mcp-gateway.md)
- [Hatchet vs Pushary](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-pushary.md)
- [Hatchet vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-restate.md)
- [Hatchet vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-temporal.md)
- [Hatchet vs Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-trigger-dev.md)
- [Hatchet vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-withhuman.md)
- [Inngest vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-orkes-conductor.md)
- [Inngest vs Permit MCP Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-permit-mcp-gateway.md)
- [Inngest vs Pushary](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-pushary.md)
- [Inngest vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-restate.md)
- [Inngest vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-temporal.md)
- [Inngest vs Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-trigger-dev.md)
- [Inngest vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-withhuman.md)