The Edge Runtime

The Edge Runtime is designed to help framework authors adopt edge computing and provide open-source tooling built on Web standards. It’s designed to be integrated into frameworks (like Next.js) and not for usage in application code. This runtime is purposefully minimal and designed for security and speed.

When your framework is built on the Edge Runtime, it runs everywhere Node.js does. When deployed to infrastructure like Vercel, frameworks like Next.js can automatically provision the optimal infrastructure for you.

The Edge Runtime is a subset of standard Web APIs, giving you compatibility and interoperability with the highest number of environments. This project is developed as part of WinterCG – a community group between Vercel, Cloudflare, Deno, Shopify, and more. The term “Edge” refers to the orientation toward instant serverless compute environments and not a specific set of locations.

Using the Edge Runtime Locally#

When developing and testing locally, the Edge Runtime will polyfill Web APIs and ensure compatibility with the Node.js layer.

In production, the Edge Runtime uses the JavaScript V8 engine, not Node.js, so there is no access to Node.js APIs.

Get started using Edge Runtime:

• Explore the available APIs
• Integrate it in your project
• Test your code with Jest or Vitest