cloudflare-temporary-deploy skill

Cloudflare Temporary Deploy Skill

Deploy a Cloudflare Worker to a live workers.dev URL with zero account setup, using wrangler deploy --temporary. Cloudflare provisions a throwaway account, deploys, and prints a claim URL valid for 60 minutes; unclaimed accounts auto-delete. This gives an agent a tight write → deploy → verify loop without any OAuth, signup, or token copy-paste.

This skill does NOT cover production deploys (use wrangler login + a permanent account for those), nor non-Worker Cloudflare products beyond the temporary-account limits below.

When to Use

Load this skill when the user wants to:

• Ship agent-written code to a live URL without first creating a Cloudflare account — "deploy this and give me a link"
• Iterate in a background/autonomous session where a browser OAuth step would be a hard stop
• Prototype or evaluate Workers quickly with a throwaway, claimable target
• Build a self-verifying deploy loop — deploy, curl the live URL, confirm output matches the code, redeploy

When NOT to Use

• Production or CI/CD → use a permanent account (wrangler login or CLOUDFLAREAPITOKEN). --temporary errors out if any credential is present.
• Wrangler is already authenticated → --temporary returns an error by design. Run wrangler logout first only if the user explicitly wants a throwaway deploy.
• Long-lived hosting → temporary deployments are deleted after 60 minutes unless claimed.

Prerequisites

• Wrangler 4.102.0 or later. This is the version that introduced --temporary. Earlier versions do not have it. Verify with npx wrangler@latest --version.
• Node 18+ / npm (or npx, yarn, pnpm). No global install needed — npx wrangler@latest works.
• No Cloudflare credentials present. --temporary only works when Wrangler is unauthenticated: no OAuth login, no CLOUDFLAREAPITOKEN / CLOUDFLAREAPIKEY env var, no ~/.wrangler / ~/.config/.wrangler cached OAuth. Use the terminal tool's environment as-is; do not set those vars.
• Network egress to cloudflare.com and workers.dev.
• Using --temporary accepts Cloudflare's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

How to Run

Use the terminal tool for every step. Always pin the version (wrangler@latest or wrangler@4.102.0 or newer) so you don't accidentally run an old global wrangler that lacks the flag.

1. Scaffold a minimal Worker (skip if the project already exists). A Worker needs a wrangler.toml (or wrangler.jsonc) and an entry script. Minimal TypeScript example — write these with write_file:

wrangler.jsonc:

{
     "name": "hello-agent",
     "main": "src/index.ts",
     "compatibility_date": "2025-01-01"
   }

src/index.ts:

export default {
     async fetch(): Promise<Response> {
       return new Response("hello cloudflare");
     },
   };

1. Deploy with --temporary from the project directory:

npx wrangler@latest deploy --temporary

The proof-of-work check adds a short automatic delay. On success Wrangler prints an Account: (created) (or (reused)) line, a Claim URL, and the live https://..workers.dev URL.

1. Parse the URLs from that output. Run the helper to extract them reliably instead of eyeballing:

npx wrangler@latest deploy --temporary 2>&1 | python scripts/parse_deploy_output.py

(Resolve scripts/parsedeployoutput.py to this skill's absolute path.) It prints JSON: {"liveurl", "claimurl", "account", "accountstate", "expiresminutes", "deployed"}.

1. Verify the deploy is actually live — do not trust the deploy log alone. curl the live URL and confirm the body matches what the code returns:

curl -sS <live_url>

1. Iterate. Edit the code, redeploy with the same npx wrangler@latest deploy --temporary. Within the 60-minute window Wrangler reuses the cached temporary account (Account: (reused)), so the URL stays stable. curl again to confirm the change.

1. Hand the claim URL to the user. Tell them: open it within 60 minutes to keep the deployment and any resources; if they don't claim it, everything auto-deletes. Treat the claim URL as a secret — it grants ownership of the account.

Quick Reference

Temporary account product limits

Pitfalls

• --temporary is not in wrangler deploy --help and is not a global flag. It is intentionally hidden and surfaced dynamically: when an unauthenticated wrangler deploy fails, Wrangler prints "rerun with --temporary". Don't conclude the flag is missing just because --help omits it — check the version instead.
• Old global wrangler. A stale globally-installed wrangler (< 4.102.0) silently lacks the flag. Always invoke npx wrangler@latest (or a pinned >=4.102.0) so you control the version.
• Auth present → hard error. If wrangler login was ever run, or CLOUDFLAREAPITOKEN/CLOUDFLAREAPIKEY is set, --temporary errors. Either unset the var for this shell or wrangler logout. Never strip a user's real credentials without telling them.
• Rate limiting. Creating temporary accounts too fast fails. Reuse the cached account (just redeploy) within the 60-minute window instead of forcing a new one; if rate-limited, wait or use a permanent account.
• 60-minute hard expiry, not extendable. If the deploy must outlive an hour, the user must claim it. Surface this clearly.
• curl may briefly serve the old body after a redeploy. workers.dev has a short edge cache; the (reused) line plus a new Current Version ID confirm the deploy succeeded even if curl shows stale content for a few seconds. Re-curl, or add a cache-busting query string, before concluding a redeploy failed.
• Don't log the claim URL into shared transcripts as "just a link." It is credential-equivalent.

Verification

• npx wrangler@latest --version returns >= 4.102.0.
• npx wrangler@latest deploy --temporary prints a workers.dev live URL and a claim-preview?claimToken= claim URL.
• curl -sS returns the exact body the Worker code produces.
• A second deploy reports Account: (reused) and the live URL is unchanged.
• The parser script's self-test passes: python scripts/parsedeployoutput.py --selftest.