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 →

341

Passed

Failed

Skipped

415

Total

View comprehensive E2E test results against all frameworks/configurations

1849

Passed

Failed

392

Skipped

2241

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	1.52s	1.47s	1.65s	15
Promise.all with 25 concurrent steps	2.91s	2.70s	3.43s	10
Promise.all with 50 concurrent steps	7.57s	7.34s	7.93s	4
Promise.race with 10 concurrent steps	1.53s	1.44s	1.67s	15
Promise.race with 25 concurrent steps	2.81s	2.54s	3.08s	10
Promise.race with 50 concurrent steps	7.88s	7.21s	8.29s	4
workflow with 1 step	1.13s	1.12s	1.16s	10
workflow with 10 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	565ms	461ms	689ms	60
workflow with 10 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	1.01s	985ms	1.08s	35
workflow with 10 sequential steps	10.93s	10.92s	10.94s	3
workflow with 25 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	2.32s	2.10s	2.51s	30
workflow with 25 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	3.05s	2.97s	3.30s	25
workflow with 25 sequential steps	14.92s	14.89s	14.95s	4
workflow with 50 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	10.35s	9.76s	10.82s	12
workflow with 50 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	8.92s	8.72s	9.12s	13
workflow with 50 sequential steps	16.39s	16.27s	16.54s	6
workflow with no steps	53ms	39ms	139ms	10

Stream Benchmarks

Benchmark	Time	TTFB	Slurp	Min	Max	Samples
10 parallel streams (1MB each)	1.22s	2.02s	0ms	1.15s	1.31s	30
fan-out fan-in 10 streams (1MB each)	3.40s	3.97s	1ms	2.99s	3.97s	16
stream pipeline with 5 transform steps (1MB)	754ms	1.01s	10ms	729ms	791ms	59
workflow with stream	208ms	1.00s	10ms	201ms	221ms	10

Last updated: 3/27/2026, 6:59:55 PM · Commit: bfb1a60

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.