Choose Cloudflare Workers or Pages

Cloudflare has two overlapping hosts. Pages is a static-asset host with optional Pages Functions. Existing Pages projects keep working. Workers is a compute platform that can also serve static assets from the same deploy. Current docs present Workers as the way to ship full-stack apps, and a Pages→Workers migration guide exists because newer features land on Workers first.

Two facts from that guide: static-asset requests are free on both, and Pages Functions invocations are charged like Workers — check current pricing yourself; this course does not promise a free tier. Workers has the broader set: Durable Objects, Cron Triggers, Workers Logs, gradual deployments. Neither is wrong. Pick the one whose behaviour you can explain.

Behaviour	Pages	Workers static assets
Files	upload / build output dir	assets.directory in Wrangler config
Missing routes	auto from index.html / 404.html	explicit not_found_handling
Request order	Functions run ahead of assets	assets run ahead of the Worker unless run_worker_first
Local preview	npx wrangler pages dev <dir> default 8788	npx wrangler dev default 8787
Deploy	npx wrangler pages deploy <dir> --project-name <name>	npx wrangler deploy
Custom domain whose nameservers are not on Cloudflare	supported (CNAME)	not supported

This tracker is one index.html, no client routing, no server code, so ordering does not matter yet. It matters the moment you add /api/*. File-based functions/ routing is first-class on Pages (functions/api/health.js → /api/health). Workers has no equivalent folder; you write a main script.

New static app, maybe a small API later → Workers with static assets. Existing Pages project with a URL you cannot break → stay on Pages. Nameservers outside Cloudflare → Pages. Cron, Durable Objects, Workers Logs → Workers. Drag a folder in the dashboard → Pages upload is shortest.

For a brand-new tracker, choose Workers. Create wrangler.jsonc next to public/ (not inside it). Set compatibility_date to the date you create the file (example 2026-09-13). $schema is optional editor help and only resolves if Wrangler is installed locally (npm install -D wrangler); npx wrangler works without that.

{
  "name": "task-tracker-yourname",
  "compatibility_date": "2026-09-13",
  "assets": {
    "directory": "./public"
  }
}

name is lowercase and unique. assets.directory must be the folder that contains index.html. Omit main — no Worker script yet. You do not need not_found_handling for this one-page app. Do not put secrets in vars; those are plaintext.

Create a Cloudflare account at dash.cloudflare.com and verify email if you have not. Then:

npx wrangler login
npx wrangler whoami

If the browser cannot reach localhost for the OAuth callback, use npx wrangler login --device.

Workers preview (port 8787):

cd ~/projects/task-tracker
npx wrangler dev

Pages preview (port 8788) if you chose Pages — no config file required for a static-only project:

npx wrangler pages dev ./public

Confirm the tracker loads and that you did not upload the repo root (that would publish notes and config). Write DECISION.md: target; two reasons tied to ordering, routing, domains, or the matrix; one capability you are giving up.