Principle:PrefectHQ Prefect Worker Configuration
| Metadata | |
|---|---|
| Source | Repo: Prefect |
| Source | Doc: Prefect Workers |
| Domains | Deployment, Orchestration |
| Last Updated | 2026-02-09 00:00 GMT |
Overview
A CLI-based pattern for setting up Prefect work infrastructure including Global Concurrency Limits, work pools, and workers with unique identities.
Description
Worker Configuration covers the infrastructure setup needed for production Prefect deployments with per-worker concurrency control. It involves three CLI operations:
- Creating GCLs with worker-specific names and slot limits
- Creating work pools that define execution environments
- Starting workers with unique identities and flow run limits
Workers poll work pools for scheduled flow runs and execute them as subprocesses. The WORKER_ID environment variable provides worker identity for per-worker GCL scoping.
Usage
Use this pattern when deploying Prefect flows to production with multiple workers that need independent resource limits. This is the infrastructure setup phase before flow deployment.
Theoretical Basis
The Worker Pool pattern from distributed computing. Work pools define execution environments; workers register with pools and compete for work items (flow runs). Per-worker GCLs add resource-level concurrency control on top of the flow-level concurrency provided by worker --limit.