---
title: Wrangler Now Traces Local Dev by Default (v4.118)
description: Wrangler 4.118 captures request traces and console logs into Local Explorer by default. Opt out with X_LOCAL_OBSERVABILITY=false if it causes trouble.
date: 2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z
category: dev-tools
tags: wrangler, cloudflare-workers, observability, local-dev
---

## Quick Answer

Starting in `wrangler@4.118.0`, `wrangler dev` and the Cloudflare Vite plugin capture request traces and console logs into the Local Explorer's Observability tab automatically, with no flag needed. This used to be opt-in. If the extra per-worker collector and streaming-tail services this spins up cause trouble, for example in a multi-process dev-registry setup, set `X_LOCAL_OBSERVABILITY=false` to opt back out.

## What changed, and when

Local dev observability shipped in two stages. [`wrangler@4.114.0`](https://github.com/cloudflare/workers-sdk/releases/tag/wrangler%404.114.0) (released 2026-07-23) first added the capability:

> "Add local-dev observability"

[`wrangler@4.118.0`](https://github.com/cloudflare/workers-sdk/releases/tag/wrangler%404.118.0) (released 2026-07-31) then flipped it on by default:

> "Enable local observability capture by default in dev"

The same default-on behavior landed in the Cloudflare Vite plugin at version 1.50.0, via pull request #14944. Before 4.118.0, a developer had to explicitly opt in to get traces and console logs surfaced in the Local Explorer; after it, every `wrangler dev` or Vite-plugin dev session gets this automatically, whether or not anyone asked for it.

## Structural Comparison Matrix

| Operational Aspect       | Before (v4.113.0 and earlier) | After (v4.118.0+)                                 |
| :----------------------- | :---------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------ |
| **Default state**        | Opt-in only                   | Enabled automatically, no flag needed             |
| **Background processes** | Just the dev server           | Adds per-worker collector/streaming-tail services |
| **Opt-out mechanism**    | N/A                           | `X_LOCAL_OBSERVABILITY=false`                     |

## Fix it: opt out if it conflicts with your setup

<Callout type="tip" title="Most single-worker setups don't need to do anything">
  If you run one Worker locally at a time, the added background services are
  unlikely to be noticeable. The opt-out matters most for multi-process
  dev-registry setups running several local workers simultaneously, where the
  extra per-worker services can compete for resources or interfere with existing
  tooling that already captures logs another way.
</Callout>

```bash title="opt out of local observability capture"
X_LOCAL_OBSERVABILITY=false wrangler dev
```

For a persistent opt-out across every local session, set it in your shell profile or the project's `.env`/`.dev.vars` file rather than prefixing every command by hand:

```bash title=".dev.vars"
X_LOCAL_OBSERVABILITY=false
```

If you want the feature but it isn't showing traces, confirm the installed version first. This is version-gated, not a config toggle that exists on every Wrangler release:

```bash title="confirm you're on a version that has this"
wrangler --version
# needs wrangler 4.118.0+ or Cloudflare Vite plugin 1.50.0+
```

## Confirmed version

Sourced from `cloudflare/workers-sdk`'s `packages/wrangler/CHANGELOG.md`: the capability landed in `wrangler@4.114.0` (2026-07-23), and the default-on switch in `wrangler@4.118.0` (2026-07-31), corroborated by the Vite plugin's own 1.50.0 changelog entry for pull request #14944. Browse more posts like this in the [Dev Tools](/dev-tools) archive.