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 →

367

Passed

Failed

Skipped

445

Total

View comprehensive E2E test results against all frameworks/configurations

1853

Passed

Failed

372

Skipped

2225

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	1.50s	1.43s	1.59s	15
Promise.all with 25 concurrent steps	2.73s	2.18s	3.06s	10
Promise.all with 50 concurrent steps	7.74s	7.04s	8.39s	4
Promise.race with 10 concurrent steps	1.51s	1.38s	1.66s	15
Promise.race with 25 concurrent steps	3.50s	2.78s	7.28s	8
Promise.race with 50 concurrent steps	8.50s	8.30s	8.61s	4
workflow with 1 step	1.10s	1.09s	1.13s	10
workflow with 10 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	663ms	491ms	827ms	60
workflow with 10 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	737ms	656ms	860ms	60
workflow with 10 sequential steps	10.67s	10.66s	10.70s	3
workflow with 25 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	2.75s	2.21s	3.21s	29
workflow with 25 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	2.57s	2.13s	7.53s	29
workflow with 25 sequential steps	14.22s	14.19s	14.26s	4
workflow with 50 concurrent data payload steps (10KB)	11.14s	10.20s	12.14s	11
workflow with 50 sequential data payload steps (10KB)	7.71s	6.93s	9.06s	15
workflow with 50 sequential steps	14.92s	14.80s	15.01s	6
workflow with no steps	37ms	33ms	42ms	10

Stream Benchmarks

Benchmark	Time	TTFB	Slurp	Min	Max	Samples
10 parallel streams (1MB each)	1.33s	2.02s	1ms	1.15s	1.59s	30
fan-out fan-in 10 streams (1MB each)	3.95s	4.53s	1ms	3.27s	4.66s	14
stream pipeline with 5 transform steps (1MB)	662ms	1.01s	11ms	544ms	862ms	59
workflow with stream	148ms	1.00s	9ms	138ms	165ms	10

Last updated: 4/9/2026, 8:38:39 PM · Commit: 66d49c0

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.