Deploy Cloudflare Workers Without an Account Using wrangler --temporary

This skill lets you deploy a Cloudflare Worker to a live workers.dev URL without creating an account, logging in, or handling OAuth tokens. It uses wrangler deploy --temporary, which provisions a throwaway Cloudflare account, deploys your code, and prints a claim URL valid for 60 minutes. Unclaimed accounts auto-delete. This is useful for agents that need a tight write-deploy-verify loop without any signup friction.

What it does

When you run wrangler deploy --temporary, Cloudflare creates a temporary account on your behalf, deploys your Worker to a workers.dev subdomain, and gives you a live URL and a claim URL. The claim URL lets a human take ownership of the account within 60 minutes. If nobody claims it, everything disappears. This means you can ship agent-written code to a live endpoint in seconds, iterate by redeploying, and hand off the result without ever touching a browser.

Before you start

• Wrangler 4.102.0 or later. This is the version that introduced --temporary. Verify with npx wrangler@latest --version. Earlier versions do not have the flag.
• Node 18+ / npm (or npx, yarn, pnpm). No global install needed; npx wrangler@latest works.
• No Cloudflare credentials present. The --temporary flag only works when Wrangler is unauthenticated. That means no OAuth login, no CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN or CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY environment variable, and no cached OAuth in ~/.wrangler or ~/.config/.wrangler. Use the terminal tool's environment as-is; do not set those variables.
• Network egress to cloudflare.com and workers.dev.
• Accepting Cloudflare's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy by using --temporary.

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 this 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");
  },
};

2. Deploy with --temporary

From the project directory, run:

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.

3. Parse the URLs

Instead of eyeballing the output, run the helper to extract them reliably:

npx wrangler@latest deploy --temporary 2>&1 | python3 scripts/parse_deploy_output.py

(Resolve scripts/parse_deploy_output.py to this skill's absolute path.) It prints JSON: {"live_url", "claim_url", "account", "account_state", "expires_minutes", "deployed"}.

4. Verify the deploy is 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>

5. Iterate

Edit the code, then 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.

6. 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

Step	Command
Check version (need 4.102.0+)	npx wrangler@latest --version
Deploy (no account)	npx wrangler@latest deploy --temporary
Deploy + parse URLs	`npx wrangler@latest deploy --temporary 2>&1
Verify live	curl -sS
Clear cached temp account	npx wrangler@latest logout

Temporary account product limits

Product	Limit on a temporary account
Workers	Deploys to workers.dev
Static Assets	Up to 1,000 files, 5 MiB each
KV	Allowed
D1	1 database, 100 MB per DB / 100 MB total
Durable Objects	Allowed
Hyperdrive	2 configs, 10 connections
Queues	Up to 10
SSL/TLS certs	Allowed

When not to use it

• Production or CI/CD, use a permanent account (wrangler login or CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN). --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.

Limits and gotchas

• --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) so you control the version.
• Auth present → hard error. If wrangler login was ever run, or CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN/CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY 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: python3 scripts/parse_deploy_output.py --selftest.