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41 changes: 41 additions & 0 deletions src/content/changelog/workers/2025-08-11-messagechannel.mdx
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---
title: MessageChannel and MessagePort
description: The MessageChannel and MessagePort APIs are now available in Workers
products:
- workers
date: 2025-08-11T01:00:00Z
---

A minimal implementation of the [MessageChannel API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MessageChannel) is now available in Workers. This means that you can use `MessageChannel` to send messages between different parts of your Worker, but not across different Workers.

The `MessageChannel` and `MessagePort` APIs will be available by default at the global scope
with any worker using a compatibility date of `2025-08-15` or later. It is also available
using the `expose_global_message_channel` compatibility flag, or can be explicitly disabled
using the `no_expose_global_message_channel` compatibility flag.

```js
const { port1, port2 } = new MessageChannel();

port2.onmessage = (event) => {
console.log('Received message:', event.data);
};

port2.postMessage('Hello from port2!');
```

Any value that can be used with the `structuredClone(...)` API can be sent over the port.

## Differences

There are a number of key limitations to the `MessageChannel` API in Workers:

* Transfer lists are currently not supported. This means that you will not be able to transfer
ownership of objects like `ArrayBuffer` or `MessagePort` between ports.
* The `MessagePort` is not yet serializable. This means that you cannot send a `MessagePort` object
through the `postMessage` method or via JSRPC calls.
* The `'messageerror'` event is only partially supported. If the `'onmessage'` handler throws an
error, the `'messageerror'` event will be triggered, however, it will not be triggered when there
are errors serializing or deserializing the message data. Instead, the error will be thrown when
the `postMessage` method is called on the sending port.
* The `'close'` event will be emitted on both ports when one of the ports is closed, however it
will not be emitted when the Worker is terminated or when one of the ports is garbage collected.
41 changes: 41 additions & 0 deletions src/content/docs/workers/runtime-apis/messagechannel.mdx
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---
pcx_content_type: configuration
title: MessageChannel
head: []
description: Channel messaging with MessageChannel and MessagePort

---

## Background

The [MessageChannel API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MessageChannel) provides a way to create a communication channel between different parts of your application.

The Workers runtime provides a minimal implementation of the `MessageChannel` API that is
currently limited to uses with a single Worker instance. This means that you can use `MessageChannel` to send messages between different parts of your Worker, but not across different Workers.

```js
const { port1, port2 } = new MessageChannel();

port2.onmessage = (event) => {
console.log('Received message:', event.data);
};

port2.postMessage('Hello from port2!');
```

Any value that can be used with the `structuredClone(...)` API can be sent over the port.

## Differences

There are a number of key limitations to the `MessageChannel` API in Workers:

* Transfer lists are currently not supported. This means that you will not be able to transfer
ownership of objects like `ArrayBuffer` or `MessagePort` between ports.
* The `MessagePort` is not yet serializable. This means that you cannot send a `MessagePort` object
through the `postMessage` method or via JSRPC calls.
* The `'messageerror'` event is only partially supported. If the `'onmessage'` handler throws an
error, the `'messageerror'` event will be triggered, however, it will not be triggered when there
are errors serializing or deserializing the message data. Instead, the error will be thrown when
the `postMessage` method is called on the sending port.
* The `'close'` event will be emitted on both ports when one of the ports is closed, however it
will not be emitted when the Worker is terminated or when one of the ports is garbage collected.
3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions src/content/release-notes/workers.yaml
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ link: "/workers/platform/changelog/"
productName: Workers
productLink: "/workers/"
entries:
- publish_date: "2025-08-11"
description: |-
- The MessageChannel and MessagePort APIs are now available in Workers.
- publish_date: "2025-06-27"
description: |-
- Updated v8 to version 13.9.
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