---
description: How Form expressions works in Gateway.
title: Form expressions
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png
---

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# Form expressions

Last updated Apr 17, 2026|Copy as Markdown| [View as Markdown](https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/traffic-policies/packet-filtering/form-expressions/index.md)| [Agent setup](https://developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

Rules are written using the Cloudflare Rules language - a domain-specific language (DSL) intended to mimic Wireshark semantics. For more information, refer to the [Rules language](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ruleset-engine/rules-language/) documentation.

To start with a simple case, review below how you would match a source IP. In this expression, `ip.src` refers to the source IP address of the incoming packet, and `==` means "equals":

```txt
ip.src == 192.0.2.0
```

Expressions can be more complex by joining multiple clauses via a logical operator (`&&` means AND, `||` means OR). The following expression matches packets from `192.0.2.1` that also have the TCP push or reset flag set:

```txt
ip.src == 192.0.2.1 && (tcp.flags.push || tcp.flags.reset)
```

## Capabilities

You can use Cloudflare Network Firewall to skip or block packets

 based on source or destination IP, source or destination port, protocol, packet length, or bit field match.

## Restrictions

The expression engine supports CIDR notation (IP address ranges like `192.0.2.0/24`), but only inside curly-brace sets. A bare comparison will not work as expected:

```txt
ip.src == 192.0.2.0/24  # bad
ip.src in { 192.0.2.0/24 }  # good
```

Expressions have a complexity limit that is easily reached when many joined or nested clauses are in the expression. Here's an example:

```txt
(tcp.dstport == 1000 || tcp.dstport == 1001) && (tcp.dstport == 1002 || tcp.dstport == 1003) && (tcp.dstport == 1004 || tcp.dstport == 1005) && (tcp.dstport == 1006 || tcp.dstport == 1007) && (tcp.dstport == 1008 || tcp.dstport == 1009) && (tcp.dstport == 1010 || tcp.dstport == 1011) && (tcp.dstport == 1012 || tcp.dstport == 1013) && (tcp.dstport == 1014 || tcp.dstport == 1015) && (tcp.dstport == 1016 || tcp.dstport == 1017)
```

If the limit is reached, the response will have a `400` status code and an error message of `ruleset exceeds complexity constraints`. Split the expression across multiple rules and try again. Each rule can handle a subset of the conditions, and the firewall evaluates them in order.

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