honker, a loadable SQLite extension, brings Postgres‑style NOTIFY/LISTEN semantics to the embedded database. It adds durable queues, event streams, pub/sub channels and a cron‑style scheduler without a separate broker or client polling. Projects such as Bluesky’s PDS, Fly’s LiteFS and Turso already run on SQLite, so the very built‑in queue fits naturally efficiently.

Cross‑process wake latency averages 0.7 ms (p50) on an M‑series laptop, using SQLite’s PRAGMA data_version polled each millisecond. One background thread fans the tick to all subscribers, turning a single lightweight SELECT into a wake signal for any number of listeners. The design avoids page‑cache pressure and kernel file watchers, keeping overhead low. Bindings exist for Python, Node, Rust, Go, Ruby, Bun, Elixir and C++.

Developers storing business data in honker can now enqueue jobs in the same transaction, guaranteeing ACID consistency between the record and its task. A rollback removes both the row and its queue entry, eliminating the dual‑write problem that forces many teams to add Redis and Celery. This unified approach simplifies deployment and backup for teams that already treat SQLite as their primary store.