Cloudflare CLI

Cloudflare CLI (cf)

Quick Start (3 Minutes)

1. Install

# Linux/macOS (global)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coollabsio/cloudflare-cli/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# Linux/macOS (user, no sudo)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/coollabsio/cloudflare-cli/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- --user

# Via Go
go install github.com/coollabsio/cloudflare-cli@latest

# From source
git clone https://github.com/coollabsio/cloudflare-cli.git
cd cloudflare-cli && go build -o cf .

Windows: Download the binary from GitHub Releases or build from source with go build -o cf.exe .

2. Authenticate

Create an API token in Cloudflare Dashboard → My Profile → API Tokens with permissions:

• Zone:Read (listing zones)
• DNS:Read (viewing records)
• DNS:Edit (creating/updating/deleting records)

# Save token to config (recommended)
cf auth save <YOUR_API_TOKEN>

# Verify connection
cf auth verify

3. First Commands

cf zones list
cf dns list example.com
cf dns create example.com -t A -n www -c 192.0.2.1 --proxied

Authentication

Three methods, in priority order (higher overrides lower):

1. Config File (Recommended)

cf auth save <token>
# Saves to ~/.cloudflare/config.yaml

Config file contents:

api_token: your-api-token-here
output_format: table

2. Environment Variables

export CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN=your-api-token
# OR
export CF_API_TOKEN=your-api-token

3. Legacy API Key

export CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY=your-api-key
export CLOUDFLARE_API_EMAIL=your-email

Priority: Environment variables override config file values.

Required Token Permissions

CRITICAL: Zone-scoped tokens (restricted to specific zones) cannot list zones or resolve zone names to IDs. See Known Issues.

Zone Management

cf zones list                            # List all zones in account
cf zones get example.com                 # Get zone details by name
cf zones get 023e105f4ecef8ad9ca31a...   # Get zone details by ID

Both zone names and zone IDs are accepted in all commands.

DNS Record Management

List Records

cf dns list <zone>                           # All records
cf dns list <zone> --type A                  # Filter by type
cf dns list <zone> --type A -t CNAME         # Multiple types
cf dns list <zone> --name www                # Filter by name
cf dns list <zone> --search "production"     # Search in comments/content
cf dns list <zone> -t A -n www              # Combined filters

Get Record Details

cf dns get <zone> <record-id>

Create Records

# A record
cf dns create <zone> -t A -n www -c 192.0.2.1

# CNAME with proxy
cf dns create <zone> -t CNAME -n blog -c example.com --proxied

# MX with priority
cf dns create <zone> -t MX -n mail -c mail.example.com --priority 10

# TXT record
cf dns create <zone> -t TXT -n _acme -c "verification-string"

# A record with comment
cf dns create <zone> -t A -n api -c 192.0.2.10 --comment "Production API"

Create flags:

Update Records

cf dns update <zone> <record-id> --content 192.0.2.2
cf dns update <zone> <record-id> --proxied
cf dns update <zone> <record-id> --proxied=false
cf dns update <zone> <record-id> --comment "Updated comment"
cf dns update <zone> <record-id> --comment ""           # Clear comment
cf dns update <zone> <record-id> -t A -n newname -c 192.0.2.3  # Multiple fields

Update accepts the same flags as create. Only specified flags are changed.

Delete Records

cf dns delete <zone> <record-id>

Find Records

cf dns find <zone> --name www --type A
cf dns find <zone> -n api -t A
cf dns find <zone> --type MX

find returns matching records. Useful for scripting when you need to look up a record ID before updating or deleting.

Configuration

cf config set <key> <value>    # Set configuration value
cf config get <key>            # Get configuration value
cf config list                 # List all settings

Available keys:

Output Formats & Scripting

cf dns list example.com                  # Table (default, human-readable)
cf dns list example.com --output json    # JSON for automation
cf dns list example.com -o json          # Short flag

# Set JSON as default
cf config set output_format json

# Pipe to jq for filtering
cf dns list example.com -o json | jq '.[].name'

# Extract record IDs
cf dns list example.com -o json | jq -r '.[].id'

Critical Rules

Always Do

• Verify auth before first use: cf auth verify
• Use --output json for scripting and piping to jq
• Use zone IDs (not names) with zone-scoped tokens
• Include --comment on records for documentation
• Test DNS changes on staging zones before production

Never Do

• Use zone-scoped tokens with cf zones list (will fail with permission error)
• Store API tokens in shell history — use cf auth save instead
• Delete records without confirming the record ID first (cf dns find or cf dns get)
• Assume --proxied is safe for all record types (only works with A, AAAA, CNAME)

Command Name Corrections

Claude has limited training data for cf CLI (released Dec 2024). Common hallucinations:

• Binary is cf, NOT cloudflare or cloudflare-cli
• cf zones list NOT cf zone list (plural "zones")
• cf dns create NOT cf dns add
• cf dns delete NOT cf dns remove
• cf auth save <token> NOT cf auth login or cf login
• --output json / -o json NOT --format json or --json
• Zone is a positional arg: cf dns list example.com NOT cf dns list --zone example.com

For complete correction patterns, see references/correction-rules.md.

Known Issues Prevention

This skill prevents 3 documented issues:

Issue #1: Zone-Scoped Token Permission Error

Error: Permission error when using cf zones list or resolving zone names Cause: API token restricted to specific zones cannot list all zones or resolve names to IDs Prevention: Either grant "All zones" read permission, or use zone IDs directly:

# Instead of zone name (fails with scoped token):
cf dns list example.com

# Use zone ID (always works):
cf dns list 023e105f4ecef8ad9ca31a8b...

Issue #2: Config File Not Found on Windows

Error: Config file not found or auth not persisting Cause: ~/.cloudflare/ directory doesn't exist on Windows Prevention: Ensure directory exists before saving auth:

mkdir -p ~/.cloudflare
cf auth save <token>

Windows config location: %USERPROFILE%\.cloudflare\config.yaml

Issue #3: "cf: command not found" After Install

Error: cf: command not found after running install script Cause: Binary not on PATH or installed to unexpected location Prevention: Check install location and add to PATH:

# Check if binary exists
which cf || ls /usr/local/bin/cf || ls ~/bin/cf

# User install adds to ~/bin — ensure it's on PATH
export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"

Self-Update

cf update    # Download and install latest version
cf version   # Show current version

Global Flags Reference