For Prefect Cloud / Enterprise, a worker is started the same way as in open-source Prefect 3.x — the main difference is how it authenticates to your Prefect API. Minimum requirement to start a worker:

bash
prefect worker start --pool <WORK_POOL_NAME>

But before that, the worker needs to know which Prefect API to talk to and how to authenticate. Required connection parameters For Prefect Cloud / Enterprise Cloud:

bash
export PREFECT_API_URL="<https://api.prefect.cloud/api/accounts/<ACCOUNT_ID>/workspaces/<WORKSPACE_ID>>"
export PREFECT_API_KEY="<YOUR_API_KEY>"

Then start the worker:

bash
prefect worker start --pool my-pool

For a self-hosted Prefect server / enterprise deployment:

bash
export PREFECT_API_URL="https://<your-prefect-server>/api"

If your server also requires auth, set the appropriate auth env vars configured for that deployment. Worker start parameters From the CLI, the key options are: -

--pool

/

-p

→ required, the work pool name -

--name

/

-n

→ optional worker name -

--work-queue

/

-q

→ optional specific queue(s) to poll -

--type

/

-t

→ optional; often inferred from the pool -

--limit

/

-l

→ optional concurrency limit -

--with-healthcheck

→ optional health endpoint on port 8080 -

--run-once

→ optional, poll once and exit Example:

bash
prefect worker start \
  --pool my-pool \
  --name my-worker \
  --limit 5 \
  --with-healthcheck

Typical setup flow 1. Authenticate to Prefect Cloud / Enterprise 2. Create a work pool 3. Start the worker pointing at that pool Example:

bash
export PREFECT_API_URL="<https://api.prefect.cloud/api/accounts/<ACCOUNT_ID>/workspaces/<WORKSPACE_ID>>"
export PREFECT_API_KEY="<YOUR_API_KEY>"

prefect work-pool create my-pool --type process
prefect worker start --pool my-pool

Alternative login method for Cloud Instead of manually setting env vars, you can log in with:

bash
prefect cloud login --key "<API_KEY>" --workspace "<account_handle>/<workspace_handle>"

Then start the worker:

bash
prefect worker start --pool my-pool

Important notes - The worker must point to the same workspace where your deployments/work pools exist. - The work pool type must match your infrastructure, e.g.

process

,

docker

,

kubernetes

, etc. -

--pool

is the main required CLI parameter. - For Cloud,

PREFECT_API_URL

+

PREFECT_API_KEY

are the main required connection settings unless you already logged in via

prefect cloud login

. Verified CLI references -

prefect worker start --help

-

prefect cloud login --help

-

prefect work-pool create --help

Helpful docs: - Workers - Work pools - Prefect Cloud - Prefect Cloud UI If you want, I can also give you: - a full worker startup command for

process

/

docker

/

kubernetes

, or - a systemd/docker/k8s example for running the worker in production.