Local World | Workflow SDK

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 →

372

Passed

Failed

Skipped

450

Total

View comprehensive E2E test results against all frameworks/configurations

1954

Passed

Failed

386

Skipped

2340

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	1.46s	1.58s	15
Promise.all with 25 concurrent steps	2.96s	2.56s	3.27s	8
Promise.all with 50 concurrent steps	8.37s	8.25s	8.55s	4
Promise.race with 10 concurrent steps	1.52s	1.41s	1.63s	15
Promise.race with 25 concurrent steps	3.10s	2.99s	3.18s	8
Promise.race with 50 concurrent steps	9.34s	9.14s	9.51s	3
workflow with 1 step	1.13s	1.12s	1.15s	10
workflow with 10 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	581ms	437ms	758ms	60
workflow with 10 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	990ms	956ms	1.08s	48
workflow with 10 sequential steps	10.94s	10.94s	10.95s	3
workflow with 25 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	2.48s	2.27s	2.75s	30
workflow with 25 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	3.02s	2.95s	3.11s	26
workflow with 25 sequential steps	15.01s	14.99s	15.03s	4
workflow with 50 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	11.11s	10.72s	11.28s	11
workflow with 50 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	9.25s	9.09s	9.59s	12
workflow with 50 sequential steps	16.74s	16.65s	16.80s	6
workflow with no steps	42ms	38ms	48ms	10

Stream Benchmarks

Benchmark	Time	TTFB	Slurp	Min	Max	Samples
10 parallel streams (1MB each)	1.24s	2.02s	0ms	1.18s	1.31s	30
fan-out fan-in 10 streams (1MB each)	3.50s	4.10s	1ms	3.17s	4.26s	15
stream pipeline with 5 transform steps (1MB)	726ms	1.01s	10ms	701ms	812ms	59
workflow with stream	203ms	1.00s	12ms	197ms	222ms	10

Last updated: 4/10/2026, 10:05:18 PM · Commit: 38a642b

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.