Wrangler CLI for Cloudflare Workers

Deploy, develop, and manage Cloudflare Workers and associated resources.

First: Verify Installation

wrangler --version # Requires v4.x+

If not installed:

npm install -D wrangler@latest

Key Guidelines

Use wrangler.jsonc : Prefer JSON config over TOML. Newer features are JSON-only.
Set compatibility_date : Use a recent date (within 30 days)
Generate types after config changes: Run wrangler types to update TypeScript bindings
Local dev defaults to local storage: Bindings use local simulation unless remote: true
Use environments for staging/prod: Define env.staging and env.production in config

Quick Start: New Worker

Initialize new project

npx wrangler init my-worker

Or with a framework

npx create-cloudflare@latest my-app

Quick Reference: Core Commands

Task Command

Start local dev server wrangler dev

Deploy to Cloudflare wrangler deploy

Deploy dry run wrangler deploy --dry-run

Generate TypeScript types wrangler types

Validate configuration wrangler check

View live logs wrangler tail

Delete Worker wrangler delete

Auth status wrangler whoami

Configuration (wrangler.jsonc)

Minimal Config

{ "$schema": "./node_modules/wrangler/config-schema.json", "name": "my-worker", "main": "src/index.ts", "compatibility_date": "2026-01-01" }

Full Config with Bindings

{ "$schema": "./node_modules/wrangler/config-schema.json", "name": "my-worker", "main": "src/index.ts", "compatibility_date": "2026-01-01", "compatibility_flags": ["nodejs_compat_v2"],

// Environment variables "vars": { "ENVIRONMENT": "production" },

// KV Namespace "kv_namespaces": [{ "binding": "KV", "id": "<KV_NAMESPACE_ID>" }],

// R2 Bucket "r2_buckets": [{ "binding": "BUCKET", "bucket_name": "my-bucket" }],

// D1 Database "d1_databases": [{ "binding": "DB", "database_name": "my-db", "database_id": "<DB_ID>" }],

// Workers AI (always remote) "ai": { "binding": "AI" },

// Vectorize "vectorize": [{ "binding": "VECTOR_INDEX", "index_name": "my-index" }],

// Durable Objects "durable_objects": { "bindings": [{ "name": "COUNTER", "class_name": "Counter" }] },

// Environments "env": { "staging": { "name": "my-worker-staging", "vars": { "ENVIRONMENT": "staging" } } } }

Local Development

Local mode (default) - uses local storage simulation

wrangler dev

With specific environment

wrangler dev --env staging

Remote mode - runs on Cloudflare edge

wrangler dev --remote

Custom port

wrangler dev --port 8787

Test scheduled/cron handlers

wrangler dev --test-scheduled

Then visit: http://localhost:8787/__scheduled

Local Secrets

Create .dev.vars for local development secrets:

API_KEY=local-dev-key DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost:5432/dev

Deployment

Deploy to production

wrangler deploy

Deploy specific environment

wrangler deploy --env staging

Dry run (validate without deploying)

wrangler deploy --dry-run

Keep dashboard-set variables

wrangler deploy --keep-vars

Manage Secrets

Set secret interactively

wrangler secret put API_KEY

Set from stdin

echo "secret-value" | wrangler secret put API_KEY

List secrets

wrangler secret list

Delete secret

wrangler secret delete API_KEY

KV (Key-Value Store)

Create namespace

wrangler kv namespace create MY_KV

Put value

wrangler kv key put --namespace-id <ID> "key" "value"

Put with expiration (seconds)

wrangler kv key put --namespace-id <ID> "key" "value" --expiration-ttl 3600

Get value

wrangler kv key get --namespace-id <ID> "key"

List keys

wrangler kv key list --namespace-id <ID>

R2 (Object Storage)

Create bucket

wrangler r2 bucket create my-bucket

Upload object

wrangler r2 object put my-bucket/path/file.txt --file ./local-file.txt

Download object

wrangler r2 object get my-bucket/path/file.txt

Delete object

wrangler r2 object delete my-bucket/path/file.txt

D1 (SQL Database)

Create database

wrangler d1 create my-database

Execute SQL command (remote)

wrangler d1 execute my-database --remote --command "SELECT * FROM users"

Execute SQL file (remote)

wrangler d1 execute my-database --remote --file ./schema.sql

Create migration

wrangler d1 migrations create my-database create_users_table

Apply migrations

wrangler d1 migrations apply my-database --remote

Vectorize (Vector Database)

Create index with dimensions

wrangler vectorize create my-index --dimensions 768 --metric cosine

Create with preset

wrangler vectorize create my-index --preset @cf/baai/bge-base-en-v1.5

Insert vectors

wrangler vectorize insert my-index --file vectors.ndjson

Query vectors

wrangler vectorize query my-index --vector "[0.1, 0.2, ...]" --top-k 10

Observability

Stream live logs

wrangler tail

Filter by status

wrangler tail --status error

Filter by search term

wrangler tail --search "error"

JSON output

wrangler tail --format json

Best Practices

Version control wrangler.jsonc : Source of truth for Worker config
Use automatic provisioning: Omit resource IDs for auto-creation on deploy
Run wrangler types in CI: Catch binding mismatches early
Use environments: Separate staging/production with env.staging , env.production
Set compatibility_date : Update quarterly for new runtime features
Use .dev.vars for local secrets: Never commit secrets to config
Test locally first: wrangler dev before deploying
Use --dry-run before major deploys: Validate changes first

Attribution

Based on cloudflare/skills wrangler skill.