Local World | Workflow DevKit

The Local World is bundled with workflow and used automatically during local development. No installation or configuration required.

To explicitly use the local world in any environment, set the environment variable:

WORKFLOW_TARGET_WORLD=local

Observability

The workflow CLI uses the local world by default. Running these commands inside your workflow project will show your local development workflows:

# List recent workflow runs
npx workflow inspect runs

# Launch the web UI
npx workflow web

Learn more in the Observability documentation.

Testing & Performance

E2E Tests

Passing100% passing

Spec compliance is tested against Next.js (Turbopack) built in production mode and started with `next start`. View CI run →

326

Passed

Failed

Skipped

400

Total

View comprehensive E2E test results against all frameworks/configurations

1768

Passed

Failed

392

Skipped

2160

Total

Benchmarks

Click on a benchmark to view performance history over the last 30 commits.

Benchmark	Time	Min	Max	Samples
Promise.all with 10 concurrent steps	1.53s	1.44s	1.90s	15
Promise.all with 25 concurrent steps	3.05s	2.94s	3.15s	8
Promise.all with 50 concurrent steps	8.14s	8.05s	8.24s	4
Promise.race with 10 concurrent steps	1.50s	1.39s	1.63s	15
Promise.race with 25 concurrent steps	2.95s	2.49s	3.12s	9
Promise.race with 50 concurrent steps	8.67s	8.47s	8.85s	4
workflow with 1 step	1.13s	1.12s	1.14s	10
workflow with 10 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	591ms	497ms	707ms	60
workflow with 10 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	965ms	938ms	1.03s	58
workflow with 10 sequential steps	10.91s	10.90s	10.91s	3
workflow with 25 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	2.51s	2.26s	2.71s	30
workflow with 25 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	2.96s	2.88s	3.02s	29
workflow with 25 sequential steps	14.93s	14.89s	14.99s	4
workflow with 50 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	11.08s	10.08s	11.42s	11
workflow with 50 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	9.02s	8.79s	9.29s	13
workflow with 50 sequential steps	16.45s	16.40s	16.54s	6
workflow with no steps	48ms	39ms	87ms	10

Stream Benchmarks

Benchmark	Time	TTFB	Slurp	Min	Max	Samples
10 parallel streams (1MB each)	1.24s	2.02s	0ms	1.18s	1.30s	30
fan-out fan-in 10 streams (1MB each)	3.55s	4.10s	1ms	3.10s	4.08s	15
stream pipeline with 5 transform steps (1MB)	724ms	1.01s	9ms	697ms	803ms	59
workflow with stream	200ms	1.00s	11ms	195ms	204ms	10

Last updated: 3/24/2026, 4:38:48 AM · Commit: ef4ca00

Configuration

The local world works with zero configuration, but you can customize behavior through environment variables or programmatically via createLocalWorld().

`WORKFLOW_LOCAL_DATA_DIR`

Directory for storing workflow data as JSON files. Default: .workflow-data/

`PORT`

The application dev server port. Used to enqueue steps and workflows. Default: auto-detected

`WORKFLOW_LOCAL_BASE_URL`

Full base URL override for HTTPS or custom hostnames. Default: http://localhost:{port}

Port resolution priority: baseUrl > port > PORT > auto-detected

`WORKFLOW_LOCAL_QUEUE_CONCURRENCY`

Maximum number of concurrent queue workers. Default: 100

Programmatic configuration

workflow.config.ts

import { createLocalWorld } from "@workflow/world-local";

const world = createLocalWorld({
  dataDir: "./custom-workflow-data",
  port: 5173,
  // baseUrl overrides port if set
  baseUrl: "https://local.example.com:3000",
});

Limitations

The local world is designed for development, not production:

In-memory queue - Steps are queued in memory and do not persist across server restarts
Filesystem storage - Data is stored in local JSON files
Single instance - Cannot handle distributed deployments
No authentication - Suitable only for local development

For production deployments, use the Vercel World or Postgres World.