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Adding local data

Whether you are using Wrangler or the Cloudflare Vite plugin ↗, your workflow for accessing data during local development remains the same. However, you can only populate local resources with data via the Wrangler CLI.

How it works

When you run either wrangler dev or vite ↗, Miniflare automatically creates local versions of your resources (like KV, D1, or R2). This means you don’t need to manually set up separate local instances for each service. However, newly created local resources won’t contain any data — you'll need to use Wrangler commands with the --local flag to populate them. Changes made to local resources won’t affect production data.

Populating local resources with data

When you first start developing, your local resources will be empty. You'll need to populate them with data using the Wrangler CLI.

KV namespaces

Add a single key-value pair

Terminal window
npx wrangler kv key put <KEY> <VALUE> --binding=<BINDING> --local

Bulk upload

Terminal window
npx wrangler kv bulk put <FILENAME.json> --binding=<BINDING> --local

R2 buckets

Upload a file

Terminal window
npx wrangler r2 object put <BUCKET>/<KEY> --file=<PATH_TO_FILE> --local

You may also include other metadata.

D1 databases

Execute a SQL statement

Terminal window
npx wrangler d1 execute <DATABASE_NAME> --command="<SQL_QUERY>" --local

Execute a SQL file

Terminal window
npx wrangler d1 execute <DATABASE_NAME> --file=./schema.sql --local

Durable Objects

For Durable Objects, unlike KV, D1, and R2, there are no CLI commands to populate them with local data. To add data to Durable Objects during local development, you must write application code that creates Durable Object instances and calls methods on them that store state. This typically involves creating development endpoints or test routes that initialize your Durable Objects with the desired data.

Where local data gets stored

By default, both Wrangler and the Vite plugin store local binding data in the same location: the .wrangler/state folder in your project directory. This folder stores data in subdirectories for all local bindings: KV namespaces, R2 buckets, D1 databases, Durable Objects, etc.

Clearing local storage

You can delete the .wrangler/state folder at any time to reset your local environment, and Miniflare will recreate it the next time you run your dev command. You can also delete specific sub-folders within .wrangler/state for more targeted clean-up.

Changing the local data directory

If you prefer to specify a different directory for local storage, you can do so through the Wranlger CLI or in the Vite plugin's configuration.

Using Wrangler

Use the --persist-to flag with wrangler dev. You need to specify this flag every time you run the dev command:

Terminal window
npx wrangler dev --persist-to <DIRECTORY>

Using --local with --persist-to

If you run wrangler dev --persist-to <DIRECTORY> to specify a custom location for local data, you must also include the same --persist-to <DIRECTORY> when running other Wrangler commands that modify local data (and be sure to include the --local flag).

For example, to create a KV key named test with a value of 12345 in a local KV namespace, run:

Terminal window
npx wrangler kv key put test 12345 --binding MY_KV_NAMESPACE --local --persist-to worker-local

This command:

  • Sets the KV key test to 12345 in the binding MY_KV_NAMESPACE (defined in your Wrangler configuration file).
  • Uses --persist-to worker-local to ensure the data is created in the worker-local directory instead of the default .wrangler/state.
  • Adds the --local flag, indicating you want to modify local data.

If --persist-to is not specified, Wrangler defaults to using .wrangler/state for local data.

Using the Cloudflare Vite plugin

To customize where the Vite plugin stores local data, configure the persistState option in your Vite config file:

vite.config.js
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import { cloudflare } from "@cloudflare/vite-plugin";


export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    cloudflare({
      persistState: "./my-custom-directory",
    }),
  ],
});

Sharing state between tools

If you want Wrangler and the Vite plugin to share the same state, configure them to use the same persistence path.