Agent Workspace Migration: Using @cloudflare/computer with Think and Agent Skills

Effective today, Cloudflare’s Think framework and the Agent Skills runtime have been switched to the @cloudflare/computer workspace model. The change introduces a new JavaScriptWorkerBackend for JavaScript execution and retires the @cloudflare/shell package and the createExecuteTool helper. Engineers who have built agents on the older stack must update their code and deployment pipelines to adopt the new workspace and backend.

What Changed

The runtime now expects agents to instantiate a Workspace from @cloudflare/computer and to supply one or more backends, such as WorkerJavaScriptBackend, that define how code is executed. The legacy @cloudflare/shell module and the convenience method createExecuteTool are marked deprecated and will not receive further development or support.

Architectural and Implementation Implications

Switching to the @cloudflare/computer workspace alters the way agents interact with storage and execution environments. The workspace is constructed with a reference to the request context’s storage (this.ctx.storage) and an array of backend instances. Each backend is identified by an id and can receive a loader from the worker environment (this.env.LOADER). This pattern decouples the execution engine from the agent logic, making it easier to swap or extend backends in the future.

import { Think } from "@cloudflare/think");
import { Workspace } from "@cloudflare/computer");
import { WorkerJavaScriptBackend } from "@cloudflare/computer/backends/worker-javascript");

export class MyAgent extends Think {
  workspace = new Workspace({
    storage: this.ctx.storage,
    backends: [
      new WorkerJavaScriptBackend({ id: "js", loader: this.env.LOADER })
    ]
  });
}

Because the workspace now owns the storage reference, any file‑system operations performed by the agent will be scoped to the same durable storage used by Workers. The explicit backend list also means that agents no longer rely on an implicit shell environment; all required tooling must be provided as a backend.

Operational and Security Considerations

From an operations standpoint, the deprecation of @cloudflare/shell and createExecuteTool signals that existing deployments using those APIs will not receive bug fixes or security updates. Teams should audit their codebases for any imports of the deprecated module or calls to the removed helper and replace them with the new workspace pattern.

Security‑focused engineers should note that the new workspace model centralizes storage access through the Workspace constructor. This makes the storage binding explicit, which can simplify permission reviews. However, because the backend configuration is now part of the agent definition, any changes to backend parameters (e.g., loader sources) should be validated as part of the CI/CD pipeline to avoid unintentionally exposing execution capabilities.

Related CloudNinjas coverage: hands-on guides.

What This Means For Practitioners

• Update all Think‑based agents to import @cloudflare/computer and instantiate a Workspace with a WorkerJavaScriptBackend.
• Remove any usage of @cloudflare/shell and createExecuteTool to stay on a supported code path.
• Validate that the loader reference in the backend points to a trusted source in your environment bindings.
• Include workspace construction in your automated tests to catch migration issues early.
• Monitor Cloudflare release notes for future backend extensions that may affect your agent’s execution model.