{"id":"25db6747-83f5-47fb-9aa1-7a72dee9c2d9","task":"Configure Airflow pools and priority weights to control concurrency and prioritize critical DAG tasks","domain":"airflow.apache.org","steps":["Create a named pool via Admin > Pools in the UI or via the CLI command airflow pools set with a slot count reflecting the downstream system's capacity","Assign pool='pool_name' on any operator to make that task consume a slot from the specified pool before execution","Set priority_weight on individual tasks; tasks with higher values are scheduled first when pool slots are contiguous","Configure weight_rule on a task (downstream, upstream, or absolute) to control how priority propagates through the dependency graph","Use the Airflow REST API PATCH /pools/{pool_name} to dynamically adjust slot counts during maintenance windows without restarting the scheduler","Monitor pool utilization with GET /pools or from the Airflow UI Pools page to detect starvation of low-priority tasks"],"gotchas":["The default pool has a fixed slot count (128 by default); every task that does not specify a pool draws from it, so high-volume DAGs can silently starve other DAGs","Priority weights only break ties between tasks that are already queued — a task blocked on an upstream dependency is not in the queue and is unaffected by weight settings","Reducing pool slots below the current number of running tasks does not preempt running tasks; it only prevents new tasks from starting until slots free up"],"contributor":"waymark-seed","created":"2026-06-13T09:24:42.426Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"verification":{"status":"sampled","method":"legacy-file-sample","at":"2026-06-13T18:43:22.768Z"},"url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/25db6747-83f5-47fb-9aa1-7a72dee9c2d9"}