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.

The Edge Runtime is a subset of Node.js APIs, giving you compatibility and interoperability between multiple web environments. The project is designed to be compliant with standards developed by WinterCG (opens in a new tab) - 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 (opens in a new tab), 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 (opens in a new tab)