---
title: "Consuming messages"
description: "Consuming messages — PHP / Laravel BabelQueue driver (1.x)."
source: https://babelqueue.com/docs/laravel/1.x/consuming-messages/
updated: 2026-06-06T00:00:00.000Z
---

# Consuming messages

Consumers route on the URN. Map each URN to a handler class in
`config/babelqueue.php`, then process the worker as usual.

## Register the handler

```php
// config/babelqueue.php
return [
    'handlers' => [
        'urn:babel:orders:created' => App\Babel\Handlers\OrderCreatedHandler::class,
    ],
    'on_unknown_urn' => 'dead_letter',
];
```

## Write the handler

A handler receives the decoded `data`, the `meta` block and the message's
`trace_id` for cross-service correlation. Implement the optional `failed()` hook
to react when processing throws:

```php
namespace App\Babel\Handlers;

final class OrderCreatedHandler
{
    public function handle(array $data, array $meta, string $traceId): void
    {
        logger()->withContext(['trace_id' => $traceId])
            ->info('Order received', $data);

        // ... your business logic
    }

    public function failed(array $data, ?\Throwable $e): void
    {
        report($e);
    }
}
```

## Run the worker

BabelQueue is a drop-in Laravel queue driver, so you consume with the standard
worker — just point it at your polyglot connection:

```bash
php artisan queue:work babelqueue
```

The `$traceId` ties this consumer's logs back to the original producer and to
every other service that handled the same job — no matter which language emitted
it. Exhausted retries and unknown URNs follow your `on_unknown_urn` /
`dead_letter` policy from [Configuration](/docs/laravel/1.x/configuration/).

That's the whole loop: any producer, any consumer, one schema.