Laravel queue:work Stop Reasons in Laravel 13.30 | Mohamed Said [ ![Mohamed Said](https://cdn.msaied.com/01KT78WE565VEMM3PSNQAAB0MH.png) Mohamed Said Laravel Backend Engineer ](https://www.msaied.com) [ Home ](https://www.msaied.com) [ Projects ](https://www.msaied.com/projects) [ Articles ](https://www.msaied.com/articles) [ Certificates ](https://www.msaied.com/certificates) [ Contact ](https://www.msaied.com#contact-section) [ ](https://github.com/EG-Mohamed) [ Home ](https://www.msaied.com) [ Projects ](https://www.msaied.com/projects) [ Articles ](https://www.msaied.com/articles) [ Certificates ](https://www.msaied.com/certificates) [ Contact ](https://www.msaied.com#contact-section) [ home ](https://www.msaied.com) [ articles ](https://www.msaied.com/articles) Laravel queue:work Now Prints Why the Worker Stopped On this page 1. [ What Changed in Laravel 13.30 ](#what-changed-in-laravel-1330) 2. [ Console and JSON Output ](#console-and-json-output) 3. [ All Nine Stop Reasons ](#all-nine-stop-reasons) 4. [ Filtering JSON Output with jq ](#filtering-json-output-with-jq) 5. [ Using the WorkerStopping Event ](#using-the-workerstopping-event) 6. [ Key Takeaways ](#key-takeaways) ![Laravel queue:work Now Prints Why the Worker Stopped](https://cdn.msaied.com/629/bed93940d17b932032d64cee2e32d333.png) [ Laravel ](https://www.msaied.com/articles?category=laravel) #Laravel #Queue #Laravel 13.30 #queue:work #WorkerStopping Laravel queue:work Now Prints Why the Worker Stopped ====================================================== 3 Sep 2026 3 min read ![Mohamed Said](https://cdn.msaied.com/01KT78WE565VEMM3PSNQAAB0MJ.jpg) Mohamed Said Table of contents 1. [ 01 What Changed in Laravel 13.30 ](#what-changed-in-laravel-1330) 2. [ 02 Console and JSON Output ](#console-and-json-output) 3. [ 03 All Nine Stop Reasons ](#all-nine-stop-reasons) 4. [ 04 Filtering JSON Output with jq ](#filtering-json-output-with-jq) 5. [ 05 Using the WorkerStopping Event ](#using-the-workerstopping-event) 6. [ 06 Key Takeaways ](#key-takeaways) What Changed in Laravel 13.30 ----------------------------- Before Laravel 13.30, a `queue:work` process could exit for nine different reasons and the console output looked identical every time. If a worker managed by Supervisor restarted every few minutes, you had no quick way to tell whether it hit its memory limit, lost its database connection, or picked up a `queue:restart` signal from a deploy. You had to register an event listener or correlate the restart time against a deploy log. Starting with Laravel 13.30, the worker prints a human-readable reason on its last output line: ```yaml 2026-09-01 13:20:40 Worker STOPPED Memory limit exceeded ``` Contributed by Jack Bayliss in [PR #61339](https://github.com/laravel/framework/pull/61339). Console and JSON Output ----------------------- `WorkCommand` now registers a listener for the `WorkerStopping` event alongside the existing job and queue status listeners. The stop line appears in the same two formats as the rest of the output. With `--json`, the stop reason is a structured record: ```json {"level":"info","status":"stopped","reason":"empty","exit_code":0,"jobs_processed":12,"memory":34.0,"timestamp":"2026-09-01T13:20:40.118273+00:00"} ``` Key fields to know: - **`reason`** — the enum's backing value; stable to match on in scripts or log queries. - **`memory`** — megabytes rounded to one decimal, or `null` when no figure was recorded. - **`level`** — `info` for exit code 0, `warning` for anything else. The stop line is suppressed under `--quiet` and `--silent`, and when the reason is `null`. Workers killed by an OOM killer or `SIGKILL` never reach the event dispatch code, so those exits remain silent. All Nine Stop Reasons --------------------- `WorkerStopReason` is an existing enum. This change added a `description()` method to it so the console output and any listener you write share the same strings. | Value | Description | Exit code | |---|---|---| | `empty` | Queue empty | 0 | | `empty_for` | Queue empty for the configured duration | 0 | | `max_jobs` | Maximum jobs exceeded | 0 | | `max_time` | Maximum run time exceeded | 0 | | `restart_signal` | Received restart signal | 0 | | `interrupted` | Interrupted | 0 | | `lost_connection` | Lost connection | 0 | | `memory` | Memory limit exceeded | 12 | | `timed_out` | Job timed out | 1 | Filtering JSON Output with jq ----------------------------- Because the reason is now a discrete field, isolating stop events from a long log stream is a one-liner: ```bash php artisan queue:work --json --max-time=3600 2>&1 | \ jq -c 'select(.status == "stopped")' ``` Under a process manager writing to a file, the same `jq` query runs against the log after the fact. Using the WorkerStopping Event ------------------------------ For anything beyond reading output—dashboards, metrics backends, alerting—the `WorkerStopping` event is still the right hook. It carries the reason, exit status, jobs processed, last-job timestamp, and memory in use: ```php use Illuminate\Queue\Events\WorkerStopping; Event::listen(function (WorkerStopping $event) { Log::info('Worker stopped', [ 'reason' => $event->reason?->value, 'status' => $event->status, 'jobs' => $event->jobsProcessed, 'memory' => $event->memoryUsage, ]); }); ``` Use it to count exits per reason for a dashboard or push each one into a metrics backend. Key Takeaways ------------- - `queue:work` now prints a stop-reason line in both plain and `--json` output as of Laravel 13.30. - Nine stop reasons are defined on the `WorkerStopReason` enum; each has a stable backing value and a new `description()` method. - The `reason` field in JSON output is safe to match on in scripts and log queries. - Workers killed by `SIGKILL` or an OOM killer remain silent—the event never fires in those cases. - The `WorkerStopping` event is still the best integration point for dashboards and metrics. --- *Source: [Laravel queue:work Now Prints Why the Worker Stopped — Laravel News](https://laravel-news.com/laravel-queue-worker-stop-reasons)* Found this useful? [ ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.msaied.com%2Farticles%2Flaravel-queuework-now-prints-why-the-worker-stopped&text=Laravel+queue%3Awork+Now+Prints+Why+the+Worker+Stopped) [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.msaied.com%2Farticles%2Flaravel-queuework-now-prints-why-the-worker-stopped) Frequently Asked Questions ---------------------------- 3 questions Q01 Why does my Laravel queue:work process restart silently with no output? Before Laravel 13.30, all nine stop reasons produced identical output, making it impossible to distinguish a memory limit hit from a restart signal or a lost database connection at a glance. Upgrading to 13.30 adds a stop-reason line to the last line of output, and a `reason` field to the `--json` format, so you can see exactly why the worker exited. Q02 Will the stop reason appear if my worker is killed by an OOM killer or SIGKILL? No. A worker killed externally by an OOM killer or a SIGKILL never reaches the code that dispatches the WorkerStopping event, so those exits remain silent. The stop-reason line only appears for the nine reasons tracked internally by the framework. Q03 How can I programmatically react to specific queue worker stop reasons? Listen to the `Illuminate\Queue\Events\WorkerStopping` event. It exposes `$event->reason?->value` (the stable enum backing value), `$event->status` (exit code), `$event->jobsProcessed`, and `$event->memoryUsage`. Use it to send metrics, trigger alerts, or log structured data to a dashboard. 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