Here's the straightforward answer: In Prefect 3.x, you typically need a pull step for deployments because it's how your flow's code gets to where it needs to run. However, there are a few ways to handle this: 1. Standard Approach (Recommended): - Use a

prefect.yaml

file that defines your pull step - Run

prefect deploy

to deploy your flow 2. Docker-based Alternative: - Package your code directly into a Docker image - The pull step becomes unnecessary since your code is already in the runtime environment 3. Local Development: - For local development and testing, you can run flows directly without deployments using

flow.serve()

- This is great for development but not recommended for production Here's a basic example of deploying from the terminal:

bash
# Standard deployment
prefect deploy

# Or specify the path to your flow
prefect deploy path/to/your/flow.py:flow_name

The

prefect.yaml

file is where you define your deployment configuration, including the pull step. Here's a minimal example:

yaml
deployments:
  - name: my-deployment
    entrypoint: flow.py:my_flow
    work_pool:
      name: my-pool

For more details on deployment configuration options, check out the deployment concepts documentation and the prefect.yaml guide. Remember: While you can't completely eliminate the need for code retrieval in production deployments, you can simplify it by packaging your code appropriately or using container-based solutions.