Imagine you’re a developer who wants to deploy a serverless function that runs blazingly fast, close to your users, without worrying about managing servers. Cloudflare Workers make this possible by letting you run code on Cloudflare’s global edge network. But how do you manage and deploy these Workers from your local machine? That’s where Wrangler comes in.
What is Wrangler?
Wrangler is Cloudflare’s official command-line interface (CLI) tool for managing Cloudflare Workers projects. It’s designed to make it easy for developers to create, test, and deploy serverless functions directly from their terminal. With Wrangler, you can:
Generate new Workers projects.
Run and test your code locally.
Publish your projects to Cloudflare’s edge network.
In short, Wrangler is your go-to tool for handling the entire lifecycle of a Cloudflare Workers project.
How to Install Wrangler
Before you can start using Wrangler, you need to install it. Since Wrangler is a Node.js package, you’ll need to have Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) installed on your machine. If you don’t have them yet, you can download them from the official Node.js website.
Cloudflare recommends installing Wrangler locally within each of your projects. This ensures that you and your team are using the same version of Wrangler, and it makes it easier to manage different versions for different projects. Here’s how to install it locally:
Open your terminal and navigate to your project directory.
Run the following command:
npm install @cloudflare/wrangler --save-dev
If you prefer to install Wrangler globally (so you can use it across multiple projects), you can do so with:
npm install -g @cloudflare/wrangler
However, keep in mind that local installation is the recommended approach for better version control.
How to Log In Using Wrangler
Once Wrangler is installed, the next step is to connect it to your Cloudflare account. This allows Wrangler to deploy your projects and manage resources on your behalf. Logging in is simple:
In your terminal, run:
wrangler loginWrangler will ask if it can open a page in your browser. Type y for yes.
A browser window will open, prompting you to log in to your Cloudflare account.
After logging in, you’ll see a confirmation that Wrangler has been authorized.
if you are getting an error saying “no redirect url set”, copy the URL you see in your console entirely and try again
Wait until the console returns “sucessfully logged in” (May take up to a view minutes).
That’s it! Wrangler is now connected to your Cloudflare account and ready to manage your Workers projects.
Note: If you don’t have access to a browser, there are alternative authentication methods, but the browser login is the standard and easiest way to get started.
Why Use Wrangler?
Wrangler simplifies the process of working with Cloudflare Workers by bringing everything into your command line. Whether you’re creating a new project, testing locally, or deploying to the edge, Wrangler streamlines the workflow. Plus, by installing it locally in your project, you ensure consistency across your team and avoid version conflicts.
In just a few commands, you can go from writing code to deploying a globally distributed serverless function. That’s the power of Wrangler.