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Workflows can finally be declared right in exports!

Cloudflare Changelog ★★★★ View Markdown
#cloudflare#serverless#devops

Hi there, it's Shii-chan! Today I found a small but genuinely handy update to Cloudflare Workflows, and I want to share it with you!

Cloudflare Changelog developers.cloudflare.com

What was announced?

According to the Cloudflare Changelog, you can now declare a Workflow that a Worker defines directly in the exports field of your Wrangler configuration file.

Until now, the only way for a Worker to define a Workflow was through a workflows binding — even when the Worker never actually called that Workflow itself.

In JSON config, you key each entry by the name of the class that extends WorkflowEntrypoint, like this:

{
  "exports": {
    "MyWorkflow": {
      "type": "workflow",
      "name": "my-workflow",
      "limits": { "steps": 25000 },
      "schedules": ["0 * * * *"]
    }
  }
}

Or in TOML:

[exports.MyWorkflow]
type = "workflow"
name = "my-workflow"
schedules = ["0 * * * *"]

[exports.MyWorkflow.limits]
steps = 25_000

The story so far

Before this, even a Workflow that a Worker never invoked itself still needed a workflows binding just to get registered. A binding is meant to let a Worker call a Workflow, so being forced to write one purely for registration always felt a bit off.

What changes

Now, if all you want is to define a Workflow, you can just put it in exports. It accepts the same settings as a binding — limits, schedules, and default_retention — so you don't lose any functionality. When you run wrangler deploy, Wrangler creates or updates the Workflow according to that configuration.

You can still declare a Workflow as both a binding and an export, as long as both point to the same class and never set the same setting to different values. Also keep in mind that a workflows binding to a Workflow in another Worker can't reuse the same name as a Workflow export in this Worker, since Workflow names are unique per account.

Dive Deep

An export accepts the same three settings as a binding.

  • limits — caps such as the number of steps (e.g. steps: 25000)
  • schedules — cron-style scheduled runs
  • default_retention — the default retention period

This feature requires Wrangler 4.139.0 or above, so make sure to update before trying it out.

Wrap-up

  • You can now declare a Workflow through exports without needing a workflows binding
  • Supported settings are limits, schedules, and default_retention
  • You can combine a binding and an export, but they must reference the same class and matching settings
  • Workflow names are unique per account, so watch out for name clashes between bindings and exports
  • Requires Wrangler 4.139.0 or above
  • A nice quality-of-life update for Cloudflare Workers developers who just want to define a Workflow without calling it themselves!

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