Build Faster

Parallel Execution

Run independent tasks simultaneously. Jake analyzes your dependency graph and parallelizes safely—no race conditions, no configuration needed.

Automatic analysis — Jake finds safe parallelization points
Configurable workers — -j4 or -j for CPU count
Safe execution — Dependencies always respected

Jakefile

task all: [frontend, backend, docs]
    echo "All packages built!"

# These run in parallel - no dependencies between them
task frontend:
    npm --prefix frontend build

task backend:
    cargo build --release

task docs:
    mkdocs build

# Deploy waits for frontend and backend
task deploy: [frontend, backend]
    ./deploy.sh

The Difference

Same tasks, dramatically different total time.

Sequential

build-frontend    ████████████████  (10s)
build-backend                       ████████████████  (10s)
build-docs                                            ████████  (5s)
                  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
                                                           Total: 25s

Parallel with -j

build-frontend    ████████████████  (10s)
build-backend     ████████████████  (10s)
build-docs        ████████          (5s)
                  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
                                                           Total: 10s

60% faster

Same work, less time.

How It Works

Jake builds a dependency graph and identifies tasks that can run concurrently.

Analyze Dependencies

Jake reads your Jakefile and builds a graph of which tasks depend on which.

Find Parallel Groups

Tasks with no dependencies between them are grouped for parallel execution.

Execute Safely

Independent tasks run simultaneously. Dependent tasks wait for their dependencies.

Terminal

$ jake -j4 all

→ frontend │ → backend │ → docs
✓ docs (1.2s)
✓ frontend (2.8s)
✓ backend (3.1s)

→ all
  echo "All packages built!"
✓ all (3.1s total)

Use Cases

Parallel execution shines in these scenarios.

CI/CD Pipelines

Run lint, test, build, and security checks in parallel.

task ci: [lint, test, build, security-scan]
    echo "CI complete"

Cross-Platform Builds

Build for multiple platforms simultaneously.

task release: [build-linux, build-macos, build-windows]
    echo "All platforms built"

Monorepo Packages

Build multiple packages in a monorepo at once.

task build: [pkg-web, pkg-api, pkg-mobile, pkg-shared]
    echo "All packages built"

Asset Processing

Process images, CSS, and JS in parallel.

task assets: [optimize-images, compile-sass, bundle-js]
    echo "Assets ready"

vs Just

Just runs tasks sequentially. Jake can parallelize them.

Just Sequential only

just frontend backend docs
# Runs one after another
# Total: 25s

Jake Parallel

jake -j frontend backend docs
# Runs simultaneously
# Total: 10s