Manage resources from the command line

cf manages Cloudflare resources directly, without a Workers project. This guide uses DNS records to show a pattern that most resource commands follow: find a resource, list what it contains, preview a change, make the change, and clean up.

• Install cf and sign in. If you use an API token, it needs permission to edit DNS records in the zone.
• Add a domain to your Cloudflare account. This guide uses example.com.
• (Optional) Install jq ↗︎ to filter JSON output.

List the zones you can access:

cf zones list

The result is a JSON array. To look up one domain, filter by name:

cf zones list --name example.com

Note the id of the zone. Zone-scoped commands accept the zone ID or the domain name. For details, refer to Select a zone.

List the DNS records in the zone:

cf dns records list --zone example.com

Options narrow the results. For example, list only A records:

cf dns records list --zone example.com --type A

cf dns records list returns one page of results. To get more, use --page and --per-page.

Add --dry-run to see the request a command would send. A dry run prints the method, URL, and body as JSON, and exits without sending anything. It does not need credentials.

cf dns records create --zone <ZONE_ID> --body '{"type":"A","name":"test","content":"192.0.2.1","proxied":true}' --dry-run

{
	"command": "cf dns records create",
	"method": "POST",
	"url": "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/<ZONE_ID>/dns_records",
	"pathParams": {
		"zone-id": "<ZONE_ID>"
	},
	"query": {},
	"bodyKind": "json",
	"body": {
		"type": "A",
		"name": "test",
		"content": "192.0.2.1",
		"proxied": true
	}
}

Use the zone ID in a dry run. A dry run does not look up domain names, so the preview would show the domain name where the ID belongs.

--body takes the JSON request body. Some operations, including this one, accept their input only through --body. For the fields the body accepts, refer to the Create DNS Record API reference.

Run the same command without --dry-run:

cf dns records create --zone example.com --body '{"type":"A","name":"test","content":"192.0.2.1","proxied":true}'

cf prints the new record as JSON, including its id.

Because results are JSON on standard output, you can pipe them to jq. Print the name and content of each A record:

cf dns records list --zone example.com --type A | jq -r '.[] | "\(.name) \(.content)"'

Get the ID of the record you created:

cf dns records list --zone example.com --name test.example.com | jq -r '.[0].id'

Delete the record by its ID:

cf dns records delete <RECORD_ID> --zone example.com

cf asks you to confirm before it deletes anything. The default answer is no.

In a non-interactive session, such as a script or CI job, cf cannot ask. It prints the question and Aborted., makes no change, and exits with status 0. To delete without confirmation, pass --force:

cf dns records delete <RECORD_ID> --zone example.com --force

Describe a task to find the command for it:

cf cli search "purge cached files for a URL"

cf cli search prints up to five matching commands as JSON, best match first. Each match includes the command and a short summary. It runs locally and does not need credentials.

To see the arguments and options a command accepts, add --help:

cf cache purge --help

To see the API request a generated command sends, including its method, path, parameters, and body fields, pass it to cf schema:

cf schema zones create

To browse commands by product, add --help to cf, to a product such as cf dns, or to any command.

• Run cf from scripts and pipelines with Use cf in CI.
• Give a coding agent access to the same commands with Use cf with coding agents.