Roundhouse

**A modern, real-time web UI for Sidekiq and Solid Queue.**

Roundhouse is a mountable Rails engine — a control plane built for the way you actually operate background jobs: a high-signal dashboard, searchable sets, grouped errors, smart bulk actions, safe queue management, and job inspection/editing. It reads through a backend port, so the same UI drives Sidekiq or Solid Queue (see Backends). All server-rendered with Turbo — no build step, no frontend dependency — and no Sidekiq Pro required.

Gem name is roundhouse_ui; the brand and mount path are Roundhouse.

Features

High-signal dashboard — a composite health verdict (error rate + queue latency + utilization, with a "why"), top failing job classes and problem queues panels, and a live throughput chart with a configurable interval — all refreshing in place (polling pauses when the tab is hidden).
Grouped errors — failures fingerprinted by class + error, so one bad deploy is a single issue with a count, not thousands of rows.
Smart bulk actions — retry/delete every job matching a filter (not just the visible page), plus select-and-act on Dead.
Search — across the dead/retry/scheduled sets by class, JID, error, or argument value.
Queue management — pause/resume, purge with an impact count, and snapshot → restore.
Job inspection & editing — full args (with redaction), error, and collapsible backtrace; edit & re-enqueue, or enqueue a new job (opt-in).
Per-class durations (opt-in) — the slowest job classes, which Sidekiq doesn't track.
Audit log — every state-changing action recorded and attributable.
⌘K command palette, light/dark themes, compact/full-width toggle, read-only mode, and a strict self-contained CSP.

Sidekiq-specific extras: Workers (quiet/stop, threads, heartbeat), Redis pressure (eviction-policy check for silent job loss), and Capsules.

There's no database of its own — Roundhouse reads your job backend directly (Sidekiq via its API, Solid Queue via its tables).

Requirements

Ruby >= 3.1 · Rails >= 7.0 · Sidekiq >= 6.5 (or Solid Queue — see Backends)

Installation

# Gemfile
gem "roundhouse_ui"

Backends

Roundhouse reads through a backend port, so the same UI can drive different job systems. It defaults to Sidekiq; point it at Solid Queue in an initializer:

# config/initializers/roundhouse.rb
RoundhouseUi.backend = RoundhouseUi::Backends::SolidQueue.new

The UI adapts to each backend's capabilities — on Solid Queue, queue pause is native (no fetcher, no warning), and the Retries / Redis / Capsules / Workers sections hide (Solid Queue has no distinct retry set, isn't Redis-backed, and processes are a follow-up). Dashboard, Queues, Scheduled, Dead, Busy, and the grouped Errors view all work on both. See docs/adr/0001.

Running both Sidekiq and Solid Queue in one app (e.g. mid-migration)? That's #17 — for now, one backend per Roundhouse instance.

Mounting

Roundhouse is auth-agnostic — wrap the mount in whatever your app already uses.

# config/routes.rb
authenticate :user, ->(u) { u.admin? } do        # Devise example
  mount RoundhouseUi::Engine => "/roundhouse"
end

It ships no authentication — always mount it behind yours; it exposes operational controls over your job system.

Configuration

# config/initializers/roundhouse.rb
RoundhouseUi.configure do |c|
  # Disable every destructive action (purge/retry/delete/edit) server-side.
  c.read_only = !Rails.env.development?

  # Enqueue new jobs and edit/re-enqueue existing ones from the UI (sharp tool — off by default).
  c.allow_job_editing = Rails.env.development?

  # Mask sensitive argument keys (case-insensitive substring) wherever args are displayed.
  c.redact_args = %w[password token secret api_key authorization]

  # Attribute audit entries to the signed-in user instead of "anonymous".
  c.actor_resolver = ->(controller) { controller.current_user&.email }

  # Deep-link jobs out to your APM (see Observability).
  c.observability = RoundhouseUi::Observability::DatadogAdapter.new(service: "my-app")

  # Where queue snapshots are stored (default: Redis). Swap for a file/S3 store.
  # c.snapshot_store = MyS3SnapshotStore.new

  # Fold sidekiq-failures' `failed` set into the Errors view (see below).
  # No-op unless the sidekiq-failures gem is loaded. Default: off.
  c.show_sidekiq_failures = true

  # Set false to hide queue pause/resume controls entirely. Rarely needed — on
  # Sidekiq Pro and Solid Queue pause is enforced natively, and on OSS Sidekiq
  # installing RoundhouseUi::Fetch enforces it. Default: true.
  # c.pause_enabled = false

  # Seconds between dashboard stat polls (default 5). Raise it if polling shows
  # up in your traces — each poll re-runs the host's auth/routing on the mount.
  # c.poll_interval = 10

  # Show the "slowest job classes" table on the Metrics page. The flag alone shows
  # nothing — it also needs the DurationCollector middleware (see below).
  # Default: false.
  # c.collect_durations = true
end

Every option is independent and has a safe default — set only what you need. Nothing here is required to mount Roundhouse.

When to turn each one on

Option	Default	Turn it on when	Leave it alone when
`read_only`	`false`	Production, almost always. Blocks purge/retry/delete/edit server-side, not just in the UI — so it holds even if someone hand-crafts a request. The usual shape is `!Rails.env.development?`.	You need operators to actually fix things from the UI, and you trust everyone behind the mount.
`redact_args`	`[]`	Any app whose job args carry secrets or PII — args render in full on the job page. Matches keys case-insensitively as substrings, and walks nested hashes/arrays.	Args are all IDs and enum values.
`actor_resolver`	`"anonymous"`	You want the audit log to name who did something. One line: `->(c) { c.current_user&.email }`.	Single-operator app, or you already audit at another layer.
`allow_job_editing`	`false`	Development and debugging. Sharp tool — a bad edit creates an unrunnable job, and it lets the UI enqueue arbitrary classes.	Production, unless you specifically want that power and have `read_only` off anyway.
`observability`	no-op	You run an APM and want per-job deep links out to it. Ships a Datadog adapter; duck-type `job_url`/`queue_url`/`error_url` for anything else.	No APM, or you'd rather not add links that only some people can open.
`snapshot_store`	Redis	Your snapshots are large or need to outlive Redis (S3/disk). Duck-type `write`/`read`/`delete`/`ids`.	Redis is fine — which it usually is for occasional queue snapshots.
`show_sidekiq_failures`	`false`	You use the `sidekiq-failures` gem and run jobs with `retry: false` — those never enter Sidekiq's retry/dead sets, so this is the only way to see them.	You don't have the gem (it's a no-op then anyway).
`poll_interval`	`5`	Raise it if dashboard polling shows up in your traces — every poll re-runs your app's auth and routing on the mount, so a busy console adds real load. Lower it only for a livelier demo.	Default is fine for most apps.
`collect_durations`	`false`	You want "slowest job classes" on Metrics, which Sidekiq doesn't track. Also requires installing the `DurationCollector` middleware — the flag alone shows nothing. Costs one pipelined Redis round-trip per job.	You already get per-job timing from your APM.
`pause_enabled`	`true`	Leave it on.	Rarely set this to `false`. Pause is enforced natively on Sidekiq Pro and Solid Queue, and on OSS Sidekiq by installing `RoundhouseUi::Fetch` — so turning it off usually just hides a working feature. Only useful if you want the controls gone entirely.

Two that pair with a middleware rather than working alone: collect_durations (DurationCollector) and job cancellation (CancelMiddleware) — see Cancelling jobs and Slowest job classes.

Pausing queues

Pause is native — enforced with nothing to install and no warning — on both Solid Queue and Sidekiq Pro/Enterprise (see below). The fetch strategy below is only needed on OSS Sidekiq.

On OSS Sidekiq, pause/resume is pure OSS. To make a pause actually stop a queue from being worked, install Roundhouse's fetch strategy in your Sidekiq server config:

# config/initializers/sidekiq.rb
Sidekiq.configure_server do |config|
  config[:fetch_class] = RoundhouseUi::Fetch
end

RoundhouseUi::Fetch subclasses Sidekiq::BasicFetch and skips paused queues, inheriting all of Sidekiq's weighting/ordering. Until it's installed, the Queues page records pauses but warns that they aren't enforced (worker and web are separate processes, so Roundhouse detects whether a fetcher has reported in).

Sidekiq Pro / Enterprise — nothing to install

Pro ships its own enforced pause, and Roundhouse uses it automatically. Pro reopens Sidekiq::Queue with pause!/unpause! and prepends pause support onto Sidekiq::BasicFetch (super_fetch honors it too), so any Pro worker enforces pauses whether or not a fetch strategy is configured.

When Roundhouse detects Pro it delegates pause/resume to Sidekiq::Queue#pause!, reads paused state from Pro's registry, advertises native_pause, and drops the "not enforced" warning. So on Pro:

Don't install RoundhouseUi::Fetch — it isn't needed, and on super_fetch installs it would displace reliable fetch and lose its crash-recovery guarantees.
Don't set pause_enabled = false — pause genuinely works; disabling it only hides a feature you already have.

Roundhouse always goes through Sidekiq::Queue#pause! rather than writing Pro's Redis key directly: Pro's fetchers read that set once at startup and afterwards only update on the pro:config pubsub message pause! publishes, so a raw write would leave running workers pulling the queue until they restarted.

Surfacing sidekiq-failures

If you use sidekiq-failures, failures it records live in their own Redis set — which Roundhouse doesn't read by default. Jobs with retry: false are the common case: they fail, get recorded there, but never enter the retry or dead sets, so they're invisible in Roundhouse. Opt in to fold them into the grouped Errors view:

# config/initializers/roundhouse.rb
RoundhouseUi.configure { |c| c.show_sidekiq_failures = true }

It's a no-op unless sidekiq-failures is loaded. Failures appear in Errors grouped by job class + error (not yet as an individual-job list with per-row actions).

Cancelling jobs

Cancellation is cooperative — Ruby can't safely kill a running thread. Install the middleware so a cancelled job is dropped before it runs:

# config/initializers/sidekiq.rb
Sidekiq.configure_server do |config|
  config.server_middleware { |chain| chain.add RoundhouseUi::CancelMiddleware }
end

The Busy page's Cancel button flags a job's JID. A queued/scheduled/retrying job is then skipped when it would next run; a currently running job stops only if it checks in — e.g. a long loop can break if RoundhouseUi.cancelled?(jid).

Timing and cost. The middleware is close to free when nothing is cancelled: rather than checking each job's JID against Redis, it asks "is anything cancelled?" from a process-local gate refreshed at most every 2s, and only does the exact per-job lookup while cancellations are pending. The tradeoff is that a cancellation takes up to ~2s to reach a worker process — the UI and your workers are separate processes, so expect a brief lag after clicking Cancel. Jobs already in flight are unaffected either way (cancellation is cooperative), and RoundhouseUi.cancelled?(jid) — what a long-running job polls — is never gated, so it always reads current state.

Slowest job classes

Sidekiq doesn't track per-class durations, so Roundhouse can record them itself. Install the opt-in server middleware and set collect_durations = true; the Metrics page then lists the slowest classes by total time (count + average).

# config/initializers/sidekiq.rb
Sidekiq.configure_server do |config|
  config.server_middleware { |chain| chain.add RoundhouseUi::DurationCollector }
end

It's two cheap Redis writes per job (a counter + a summed-ms float) into a single hash, pipelined into one round-trip, and a job failure never propagates from the collector.

Bulk actions on a filter

On Retries and Dead, searching narrows the set; with a filter active you can retry or delete every matching job in one action (not just the visible page), capped at 1,000 per run. Gated to when a filter is present so it can't become "retry everything", read_only-aware, and audit-logged.

Observability deep-links

The core depends on nothing — it asks the configured adapter for a URL and renders a link only if one comes back. A Datadog adapter ships in the box; write your own by duck-typing job_url / queue_url / label:

RoundhouseUi.observability = RoundhouseUi::Observability::DatadogAdapter.new(site: "datadoghq.com", service: "my-app")

Snapshots

Back up a queue before purging it (the safety net for clearing a stuck queue), then restore. Storage is pluggable via RoundhouseUi.snapshot_store (default: Redis). For large/stuck queues use a file or S3 store so the backup doesn't sit in the Redis you're trying to relieve.

Security

All destructive actions are CSRF-protected POSTs — never GET — and gated by read_only.
Roundhouse sets its own strict, self-contained Content-Security-Policy on its responses (nonce'd inline script, same-origin only), so it's safe even if the host sets no policy.
Configure redact_args to keep tokens/PII out of the UI; the audit log records who did what.

Keyboard

⌘K (or Ctrl+K) opens the command palette — jump to any view or action.

Development

bin/rails test      # full suite, ~1s, no Redis required (Sidekiq's API is stubbed)
bundle exec rubocop # lint

The dummy app under test/dummy mounts the engine at /roundhouse; point it at a local Redis and run bin/rails server to click around.

Roadmap

Solid Queue: Workers view + enqueue, and the multi-DB (separate queue database) case.
Watch Sidekiq and Solid Queue from one install (#17).
Multi-Redis / multi-cluster view (one pane across shards).
Cron/periodic (recurring) views.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests welcome at https://github.com/rjrobinson/roundhouse_ui.

License

Available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.