Start the server
- Spin up a self-hosted Prefect server instance UI with the
prefect server start
CLI command in the terminal:
- Open the URL for the Prefect server UI (http://127.0.0.1:4200 by default) in a browser.

- Shut down the Prefect server with ctrl + c in the terminal.
Configure the server
Go to your terminal session and run this command to set the API URL to point to a self-hosted Prefect server instance:Database configuration
Use SQLite (default)
By default, Prefect uses a SQLite database stored at~/.prefect/prefect.db
. No additional configuration is needed for basic use.
Use PostgreSQL
To use PostgreSQL as your database backend:- Set the database connection URL:
- Start the server:
Database management commands
Reset the database
Clear all data and reapply the schema:Manage migrations
Apply database migrations:Multi-worker API server
For high-throughput scenarios, you can run the server with multiple worker processes to handle concurrent requests more efficiently:Requirements for multi-worker mode
Multi-worker mode has specific infrastructure requirements:- PostgreSQL database - SQLite is not supported due to database locking issues
- Redis messaging - In-memory messaging doesn’t work across processes
Configuration example
The number of workers should typically match the number of CPU cores available to your server process, but you may need to experiment to find the optimal value for your workload.
Advanced configuration
For advanced deployment scenarios including:- Running behind a reverse proxy
- Configuring SSL certificates
- Multi-server deployments
- Handling migration issues