---
title: Worker script · Cloudflare Workers docs
description: How the presence of a Worker script influences static asset routing
  and the related configuration options.
lastUpdated: 2025-08-08T14:30:35.000Z
chatbotDeprioritize: false
source_url:
  html: https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/static-assets/routing/worker-script/
  md: https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/static-assets/routing/worker-script/index.md
---

If you have both static assets and a Worker script configured, Cloudflare will first attempt to serve static assets if one matches the incoming request. You can read more about how we match assets in the [HTML handling docs](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/static-assets/routing/advanced/html-handling/).

If an appropriate static asset if not found, Cloudflare will invoke your Worker script.

This allows you to easily combine together these two features to create powerful applications (e.g. a [full-stack application](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/static-assets/routing/full-stack-application/), or a [Single Page Application (SPA)](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/static-assets/routing/single-page-application/) or [Static Site Generation (SSG) application](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/static-assets/routing/static-site-generation/) with an API).

## Run your Worker script first

You can configure the [`assets.run_worker_first` setting](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/static-assets/binding/#run_worker_first) to control when your Worker script runs relative to static asset serving. This gives you more control over exactly how and when those assets are served and can be used to implement "middleware" for requests.

Warning

If you are using [Smart Placement](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/configuration/smart-placement/) in combination with `assets.run_worker_first`, you may find that placement decisions are not optimized correctly as, currently, the entire Worker script is placed as a single unit. This may not accurately reflect the desired "split" in behavior of edge-first vs. smart-placed compute for your application. This is a limitation that we are currently working to resolve.

### Run Worker before each request

If you need to always run your Worker script before serving static assets (for example, you wish to log requests, perform some authentication checks, use [HTMLRewriter](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/runtime-apis/html-rewriter/), or otherwise transform assets before serving), set `run_worker_first` to `true`:

* wrangler.jsonc

  ```jsonc
  {
    "name": "my-worker",
    "compatibility_date": "2025-11-17",
    "main": "./worker/index.ts",
    "assets": {
      "directory": "./dist/",
      "binding": "ASSETS",
      "run_worker_first": true
    }
  }
  ```

* wrangler.toml

  ```toml
  name = "my-worker"
  compatibility_date = "2025-11-17"
  main = "./worker/index.ts"


  [assets]
  directory = "./dist/"
  binding = "ASSETS"
  run_worker_first = true
  ```

- JavaScript

  ```js
  import { WorkerEntrypoint } from "cloudflare:workers";


  export default class extends WorkerEntrypoint {
    async fetch(request) {
      // You can perform checks before fetching assets
      const user = await checkIfRequestIsAuthenticated(request);


      if (!user) {
        return new Response("Unauthorized", { status: 401 });
      }


      // You can then just fetch the assets as normal, or you could pass in a custom Request object here if you wanted to fetch some other specific asset
      const assetResponse = await this.env.ASSETS.fetch(request);


      // You can return static asset response as-is, or you can transform them with something like HTMLRewriter
      return new HTMLRewriter()
        .on("#user", {
          element(element) {
            element.setInnerContent(JSON.stringify({ name: user.name }));
          },
        })
        .transform(assetResponse);
    }
  }
  ```

- TypeScript

  ```ts
  import { WorkerEntrypoint } from "cloudflare:workers";


  export default class extends WorkerEntrypoint<Env> {
    async fetch(request: Request) {
      // You can perform checks before fetching assets
      const user = await checkIfRequestIsAuthenticated(request);


      if (!user) {
        return new Response("Unauthorized", { status: 401 });
      }


      // You can then just fetch the assets as normal, or you could pass in a custom Request object here if you wanted to fetch some other specific asset
      const assetResponse = await this.env.ASSETS.fetch(request);


      // You can return static asset response as-is, or you can transform them with something like HTMLRewriter
      return new HTMLRewriter()
        .on("#user", {
          element(element) {
            element.setInnerContent(JSON.stringify({ name: user.name }));
          },
        })
        .transform(assetResponse);
    }
  }
  ```

### Run Worker first for selective paths

You can also configure selective Worker-first routing using an array of route patterns, often paired with the [`single-page-application` setting](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/static-assets/routing/single-page-application/#advanced-routing-control). This allows you to run the Worker first only for specific routes while letting other requests follow the default asset-first behavior:

* wrangler.jsonc

  ```jsonc
  {
    "name": "my-worker",
    "compatibility_date": "2025-11-17",
    "main": "./worker/index.ts",
    "assets": {
      "directory": "./dist/",
      "not_found_handling": "single-page-application",
      "binding": "ASSETS",
      "run_worker_first": ["/oauth/callback"]
    }
  }
  ```

* wrangler.toml

  ```toml
  name = "my-worker"
  compatibility_date = "2025-11-17"
  main = "./worker/index.ts"


  [assets]
  directory = "./dist/"
  not_found_handling = "single-page-application"
  binding = "ASSETS"
  run_worker_first = [ "/oauth/callback" ]
  ```

- JavaScript

  ```js
  import { WorkerEntrypoint } from "cloudflare:workers";


  export default class extends WorkerEntrypoint {
    async fetch(request) {
      // The only thing this Worker script does is handle an OAuth callback.
      // All other requests either serve an asset that matches or serve the index.html fallback, without ever hitting this code.
      const url = new URL(request.url);
      const code = url.searchParams.get("code");
      const state = url.searchParams.get("state");


      const accessToken = await exchangeCodeForToken(code, state);
      const sessionIdentifier = await storeTokenAndGenerateSession(accessToken);


      // Redirect back to the index, but set a cookie that the front-end will use.
      return new Response(null, {
        headers: {
          Location: "/",
          "Set-Cookie": `session_token=${sessionIdentifier}; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=Lax; Path=/`,
        },
      });
    }
  }
  ```

- TypeScript

  ```ts
  import { WorkerEntrypoint } from "cloudflare:workers";


  export default class extends WorkerEntrypoint<Env> {
    async fetch(request: Request) {
      // The only thing this Worker script does is handle an OAuth callback.
      // All other requests either serve an asset that matches or serve the index.html fallback, without ever hitting this code.
      const url = new URL(request.url);
      const code = url.searchParams.get("code");
      const state = url.searchParams.get("state");


      const accessToken = await exchangeCodeForToken(code, state);
      const sessionIdentifier = await storeTokenAndGenerateSession(accessToken);


      // Redirect back to the index, but set a cookie that the front-end will use.
      return new Response(null, {
        headers: {
          "Location": "/",
          "Set-Cookie": `session_token=${sessionIdentifier}; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=Lax; Path=/`
        }
      });
    }
  }
  ```
