diff --git a/src/lib/server/compute/index.ts b/src/lib/server/compute/index.ts
index 25633e4..ecfea22 100644
--- a/src/lib/server/compute/index.ts
+++ b/src/lib/server/compute/index.ts
@@ -1,24 +1,10 @@
-import type { ComputeBackend, ComputeMode } from '@/lib/server/compute/types';
-import { isComputeModeAvailable, readComputeMode } from '@/lib/server/compute/mode';
-import { WorkerComputeBackend } from '@/lib/server/compute/worker';
-
-declare const __OPENREADER_COMPUTE_MODE__: 'local' | 'worker' | 'none';
+import type { ComputeBackend } from '@/lib/server/compute/types';
+import { isWorkerClientConfigAvailable, WorkerComputeBackend } from '@/lib/server/compute/worker';
 
 let backendPromise: Promise<ComputeBackend> | null = null;
 
 async function createBackend(): Promise<ComputeBackend> {
-  const bundledMode =
-    typeof __OPENREADER_COMPUTE_MODE__ === 'undefined' ? 'none' : __OPENREADER_COMPUTE_MODE__;
-
-  if (bundledMode === 'worker') return new WorkerComputeBackend();
-  if (bundledMode === 'local') {
-    const { LocalComputeBackend } = await import('@/lib/server/compute/local');
-    return new LocalComputeBackend();
-  }
-  const mode: ComputeMode = readComputeMode();
-  if (mode === 'worker') return new WorkerComputeBackend();
-  const { LocalComputeBackend } = await import('@/lib/server/compute/local');
-  return new LocalComputeBackend();
+  return new WorkerComputeBackend();
 }
 
 export async function getCompute(): Promise<ComputeBackend> {
@@ -32,5 +18,5 @@ export async function getCompute(): Promise<ComputeBackend> {
 }
 
 export function isComputeAvailable(): boolean {
-  return isComputeModeAvailable();
+  return isWorkerClientConfigAvailable();
 }
diff --git a/src/lib/server/compute/index.worker.ts b/src/lib/server/compute/index.worker.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index fbbaf7b..0000000
--- a/src/lib/server/compute/index.worker.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,20 +0,0 @@
-import type { ComputeBackend } from '@/lib/server/compute/types';
-import { WorkerComputeBackend } from '@/lib/server/compute/worker';
-
-let backendPromise: Promise<ComputeBackend> | null = null;
-
-export async function getCompute(): Promise<ComputeBackend> {
-  if (!backendPromise) {
-    backendPromise = Promise.resolve()
-      .then(() => new WorkerComputeBackend())
-      .catch((error) => {
-        backendPromise = null;
-        throw error;
-      });
-  }
-  return backendPromise;
-}
-
-export function isComputeAvailable(): boolean {
-  return true;
-}
diff --git a/src/lib/server/compute/local.ts b/src/lib/server/compute/local.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 001ed1e..0000000
--- a/src/lib/server/compute/local.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,77 +0,0 @@
-import type { ComputeBackend, PdfLayoutInput, WhisperAlignInput, WhisperAlignResult } from '@/lib/server/compute/types';
-import { LOCAL_COMPUTE_LIMITER } from '@/lib/server/compute/concurrency-limiter';
-import { getDocumentBlob } from '@/lib/server/documents/blobstore';
-import { getTtsSegmentAudioObject } from '@/lib/server/tts/segments-blobstore';
-import {
-  getComputeTimeoutConfig,
-  withIdleTimeoutAndHardCap,
-  withTimeout,
-} from '@openreader/compute-core';
-import type { PdfLayoutProgress } from '@openreader/compute-core/api-contracts';
-import {
-  runPdfLayoutFromPdfBuffer,
-  runWhisperAlignmentFromAudioBuffer,
-} from '@openreader/compute-core/local-runtime';
-
-export class LocalComputeBackend implements ComputeBackend {
-  readonly mode = 'local' as const;
-  private readonly timeoutConfig = getComputeTimeoutConfig();
-
-  async alignWords(input: WhisperAlignInput): Promise<WhisperAlignResult> {
-    return LOCAL_COMPUTE_LIMITER.run(async () => {
-      let audioBuffer = input.audioBuffer ?? null;
-      if (!audioBuffer && input.audioObjectKey) {
-        const bytes = new Uint8Array(await getTtsSegmentAudioObject(input.audioObjectKey));
-        audioBuffer = bytes.buffer.slice(bytes.byteOffset, bytes.byteOffset + bytes.byteLength);
-      }
-      if (!audioBuffer) {
-        throw new Error('Local compute alignment requires audioBuffer or audioObjectKey');
-      }
-      return withTimeout(
-        runWhisperAlignmentFromAudioBuffer({
-          audioBuffer,
-          text: input.text,
-          cacheKey: input.cacheKey,
-          lang: input.lang,
-        }),
-        this.timeoutConfig.whisperTimeoutMs,
-        'local whisper alignment job',
-      );
-    });
-  }
-
-  async parsePdfLayout(input: PdfLayoutInput) {
-    return LOCAL_COMPUTE_LIMITER.run(async () => {
-      let pdfBytes = input.pdfBytes ?? null;
-      if (!pdfBytes && input.documentId && typeof input.namespace !== 'undefined') {
-        const bytes = new Uint8Array(await getDocumentBlob(input.documentId, input.namespace));
-        pdfBytes = bytes.buffer.slice(bytes.byteOffset, bytes.byteOffset + bytes.byteLength);
-      }
-      if (!pdfBytes) {
-        throw new Error('Local compute PDF layout requires pdfBytes or (documentId + namespace)');
-      }
-
-      return {
-        parsed: (await withIdleTimeoutAndHardCap({
-          idleTimeoutMs: Math.max(this.timeoutConfig.pdfTimeoutMs, 1_000),
-          hardCapMs: this.timeoutConfig.pdfHardCapMs,
-          label: 'local pdf layout job',
-          run: async (touchProgress) => runPdfLayoutFromPdfBuffer({
-            documentId: input.documentId,
-            pdfBytes,
-            onPageParsed: (page) => {
-              touchProgress();
-              const progress: PdfLayoutProgress = {
-                totalPages: page.totalPages,
-                pagesParsed: page.pageNumber,
-                currentPage: page.pageNumber,
-                phase: 'infer',
-              };
-              return input.onProgress?.(progress);
-            },
-          }),
-        })).parsed,
-      };
-    });
-  }
-}
diff --git a/src/lib/server/compute/mode.ts b/src/lib/server/compute/mode.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 5c2b83d..0000000
--- a/src/lib/server/compute/mode.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-import type { ComputeMode } from '@/lib/server/compute/types';
-
-export function readComputeMode(): ComputeMode {
-  const envValue = process.env.COMPUTE_MODE;
-  const raw = (envValue || '').trim().toLowerCase();
-  if (!raw) return 'local';
-  if (raw === 'local' || raw === 'worker') return raw;
-  throw new Error(
-    `Invalid COMPUTE_MODE="${envValue}". Expected "local" or "worker".`,
-  );
-}
-
-export function isComputeModeAvailable(): boolean {
-  // Throws on invalid values so startup/runtime config fails fast.
-  readComputeMode();
-  return true;
-}
diff --git a/src/lib/server/compute/types.ts b/src/lib/server/compute/types.ts
index f93a8f3..5f21b57 100644
--- a/src/lib/server/compute/types.ts
+++ b/src/lib/server/compute/types.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import type {
 import type { PdfLayoutProgress, WhisperAlignJobBase } from '@openreader/compute-core/api-contracts';
 import type { PdfLayoutJobResult, WorkerOperationState } from '@openreader/compute-core/api-contracts';
 
-export type ComputeMode = 'local' | 'worker';
+export type ComputeMode = 'worker';
 
 export interface WhisperAlignInput extends WhisperAlignJobBase {
   audioBuffer?: TTSAudioBuffer;
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ export type PdfLayoutResult =
   | { parsed?: never; parsedObjectKey: string };
 
 export interface ComputeBackend {
-  mode: ComputeMode;
+  mode: 'worker';
   alignWords(input: WhisperAlignInput): Promise<WhisperAlignResult>;
   parsePdfLayout(input: PdfLayoutInput): Promise<PdfLayoutResult>;
 }
diff --git a/src/lib/server/compute/worker.ts b/src/lib/server/compute/worker.ts
index 3be3897..3f4dcf5 100644
--- a/src/lib/server/compute/worker.ts
+++ b/src/lib/server/compute/worker.ts
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ function opSummary(value: unknown): Record<string, unknown> {
 
 function readRequiredEnv(name: string): string {
   const value = process.env[name]?.trim();
-  if (!value) throw new Error(`${name} is required when COMPUTE_MODE=worker`);
+  if (!value) throw new Error(`${name} is required for compute worker client`);
   return value;
 }
 
@@ -127,6 +127,15 @@ export function getWorkerClientConfigFromEnv(): { baseUrl: string; token: string
   };
 }
 
+export function isWorkerClientConfigAvailable(): boolean {
+  try {
+    getWorkerClientConfigFromEnv();
+    return true;
+  } catch {
+    return false;
+  }
+}
+
 function parseRetryAfterMs(value: string | null): number | null {
   if (!value) return null;
   const asNum = Number(value);
diff --git a/src/lib/server/runtime-config.ts b/src/lib/server/runtime-config.ts
index 14be70f..87889d8 100644
--- a/src/lib/server/runtime-config.ts
+++ b/src/lib/server/runtime-config.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import {
   type RuntimeConfigKey,
   type RuntimeConfigSource,
 } from '@/lib/server/admin/settings';
-import { isComputeModeAvailable } from '@/lib/server/compute/mode';
+import { isComputeAvailable } from '@/lib/server/compute';
 
 export type ResolvedRuntimeConfig = RuntimeConfig & {
   computeAvailable: boolean;
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ export async function getResolvedRuntimeConfig(): Promise<ResolvedRuntimeConfig>
   const values = await getRuntimeConfig();
   return {
     ...values,
-    computeAvailable: isComputeModeAvailable(),
+    computeAvailable: isComputeAvailable(),
   };
 }