Back to Skills

Cloudflare Workers Dev Experience

Cloudflare Workers local development with Wrangler, Miniflare, hot reload, debugging. Use for project setup, wrangler.jsonc configuration, or encountering local dev, HMR, binding simulation errors.

cloudflare

Skill Content

# Cloudflare Workers Developer Experience

Local development setup with Wrangler, Miniflare, and modern tooling.

## Quick Start

```bash
# Create new project
bunx create-cloudflare@latest my-worker

# Or from scratch
mkdir my-worker && cd my-worker
bun init -y
bun add -d wrangler @cloudflare/workers-types

# Start local development
bunx wrangler dev
```

## Essential wrangler.jsonc

```jsonc
{
  "$schema": "node_modules/wrangler/config-schema.json",
  "name": "my-worker",
  "main": "src/index.ts",
  "compatibility_date": "2024-12-01",

  // Development settings
  "dev": {
    "port": 8787,
    "local_protocol": "http"
  },

  // Environment variables (non-secret)
  "vars": {
    "ENVIRONMENT": "development"
  },

  // Bindings
  "kv_namespaces": [
    { "binding": "KV", "id": "abc123", "preview_id": "def456" }
  ],

  "d1_databases": [
    { "binding": "DB", "database_id": "xyz789", "database_name": "my-db" }
  ],

  "r2_buckets": [
    { "binding": "BUCKET", "bucket_name": "my-bucket" }
  ]
}
```

## Critical Rules

1. **Always use `wrangler dev` for local testing** - Simulates Cloudflare runtime accurately
2. **Set `compatibility_date`** - Controls runtime behavior, update quarterly
3. **Use preview IDs for local dev** - Separate from production bindings
4. **Configure TypeScript properly** - Use `@cloudflare/workers-types`
5. **Enable source maps** - Better error stacks in development

## Top 6 Errors Prevented

| Error | Symptom | Prevention |
|-------|---------|------------|
| Module not found | Import errors on deploy | Set `"moduleResolution": "bundler"` in tsconfig |
| Binding undefined | `env.KV is undefined` locally | Add `preview_id` to KV namespace config |
| HMR not working | Changes not reflecting | Check port conflicts, use `--local` flag |
| D1 schema mismatch | Queries fail locally | Run migrations on local DB |
| Type errors | Missing binding types | Generate types with `wrangler types` |
| CORS issues | Browser blocking requests | Add CORS headers in dev handler |

## Local Development Workflow

```bash
# Start dev server (recommended)
bunx wrangler dev

# With live reload
bunx wrangler dev --live-reload

# Remote mode (use actual Cloudflare services)
bunx wrangler dev --remote

# Specify environment
bunx wrangler dev --env staging

# Custom port
bunx wrangler dev --port 3000
```

## TypeScript Configuration

**tsconfig.json**:
```json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2022",
    "module": "ES2022",
    "moduleResolution": "bundler",
    "lib": ["ES2022"],
    "types": ["@cloudflare/workers-types"],
    "strict": true,
    "noEmit": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true
  },
  "include": ["src/**/*"],
  "exclude": ["node_modules"]
}
```

## Package.json Scripts

```json
{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "wrangler dev",
    "deploy": "wrangler deploy",
    "deploy:staging": "wrangler deploy --env staging",
    "deploy:production": "wrangler deploy --env production",
    "test": "vitest",
    "test:watch": "vitest --watch",
    "type-check": "tsc --noEmit",
    "lint": "eslint src/",
    "types": "wrangler types",
    "tail": "wrangler tail",
    "db:migrate": "wrangler d1 migrations apply DB",
    "db:studio": "wrangler d1 execute DB --local --command 'SELECT 1'"
  }
}
```

## Debugging

### Console Logging

```typescript
// Development-only logging
export default {
  async fetch(request: Request, env: Env): Promise<Response> {
    if (env.ENVIRONMENT === 'development') {
      console.log('Request:', request.method, request.url);
      console.log('Headers:', Object.fromEntries(request.headers));
    }

    // Handler logic...
  }
};
```

### Using wrangler tail

```bash
# Real-time logs from deployed worker
wrangler tail

# Filter by status
wrangler tail --status error

# Filter by method
wrangler tail --method POST

# JSON format for parsing
wrangler tail --format json
```

### VS Code Debugging

**.vscode/launch.json**:
```json
{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Wrangler Dev",
      "type": "node",
      "request": "launch",
      "runtimeExecutable": "bunx",
      "runtimeArgs": ["wrangler", "dev", "--inspector-port", "9229"],
      "skipFiles": ["<node_internals>/**"],
      "sourceMaps": true
    }
  ]
}
```

## When to Load References

Load specific references based on the task:

- **Setting up project?** → Load `references/local-development.md` for complete setup guide
- **Configuring wrangler?** → Load `references/wrangler-config.md` for all configuration options
- **Debugging issues?** → Load `references/debugging-tools.md` for debugging techniques

## Templates

| Template | Purpose | Use When |
|----------|---------|----------|
| `templates/wrangler-config.jsonc` | Complete wrangler config | Starting new project |
| `templates/dev-script.ts` | Development utilities | Adding dev helpers |

## Scripts

| Script | Purpose | Command |
|--------|---------|---------|
| `scripts/dev-setup.sh` | Initialize dev environment | `./dev-setup.sh` |

## Resources

- Wrangler CLI: https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/wrangler/
- Configuration: https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/wrangler/configuration/
- Local Development: https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/testing/local-development/

How to use

  1. Copy the skill content above
  2. Create a .claude/skills directory in your project
  3. Save as .claude/skills/claude-skills-cloudflare-workers-dev-experience.md
  4. Use /claude-skills-cloudflare-workers-dev-experience in Claude Code to invoke this skill
View source on GitHub