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

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.

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

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",
});

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.