Code conventions and format

Use the conventions described below throughout Cloudflare product content.

Angle brackets ( < and > )

Use angle brackets to denote placeholders for variables you want the user to enter (except in API URLs and API authentication headers, where you should use the $ZONE_ID / $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN format). Placeholder text should have all capital letters and use underscores (_) to separate words.

Examples:

{
  "description": "<RULE_DESCRIPTION>"
}

https://<YOUR_DOMAIN>.cloudflare.com

Angle brackets that contain numbers separated by an ellipsis represent a range of values associated with a bit or single name - for example, AO <0...3>.

Square brackets ( [ and ] )

Square brackets enclose optional items.

Example:

Specify a subsearch that starts with this search command: tag=dns query [search tag=malware].

Curly braces ( { and } )

Do not use curly braces for URL or variable placeholders. Instead, refer to angle brackets.

>

The > symbol leads you through nested menu items and dialog box options to a final action. The sequence Options > Settings > General directs you to pull down the Options menu, select the Settings item, and select General from the last dialog box. Do not use bold formatting for the > symbol.

Tip icon

This icon denotes a tip, which alerts you to advisory information.

Note icon

This icon denotes a note, which alerts you to important information.

Info icon

This icon denotes info, which alerts you to important information.

Notice icon

This icon denotes a notice, which alerts you to take precautions to avoid data loss, loss of signal integrity, or degradation of performance.

Caution icon

This icon denotes a caution, which advises you to take precautions to avoid injury.

Blue text

Text in this color indicates a link.

Bold

Use bold when referring to a clickable action or to highlight a title or name in the UI. Bold text denotes items that you must select or click in the software, identifiers in the UI, or parameter names.

Do not use bold for programs.

In nested menus, use bold for the word not the symbol.

Example: Dashboard > This > That

Italics

Use italics when referring to an option that customers can select from, like in dropdown menus.

Do not use italics when referring to the state of a toggle - for example, enabled/disabled should not be italicized.

Monospace

`text in between backticks`

Text in this font denotes text or characters that you should enter from the keyboard, sections of code, programming examples, and syntax examples. This font is also used for the proper names of drives, paths, directories, programs, subprograms, devices, functions, operations, variables, files, API commands, and extensions.

Examples of elements we monospace

Element	Example
IP addresses and ranges	Change your system + DNS servers to use 127.0.1.1.
Port numbers	Requests are redirected through the HTTP service (port 80).
API commands	The endpoint supports GET for JSON format.
Terminal commands	Run the command wrangler login.
Attribute names and values	type, name
Class names	button-primary
Command-line utility names	wrangler, npm, node, cloudflared
Data types	(string, number, int64)
Defined (constant) values for an element or attribute	<A_BINDING_NAME>
DNS record types	The bot will default to looking for AAAA records. However, you may use regular formatting (for example, AAAA) if there are multiple inline occurrences or if the text is a hyperlink.
Enum (enumerator) names (depending on language)	type ContentTypeMapElem
Environment variable names	<A_BINDING_NAME>
Element names, including angle brackets (XML and HTML).	<div>, <form>, <input>, <code>
Filenames, filename extensions (if used), and paths	wrangler.toml, wrangler.jsonc
Folders and directories	~/Downloads/Cloudflare_CA.crt
HTTP verbs	POST, GET, HEAD, PUT,DELETE
HTTP status codes	400, 200, 500 However, error ranges using x placeholders should not be monospaced: 5xx, 1xxxx.
HTTP content-type values	text/html, application/javascript; charset=utf-8
HTTP header names	Content-Length
URLs that are used as input or output in commands and code	VERSION-dot-SERVICE-dot-PROJECT_ID.REGION_ID.r.appspot.com
IAM role names	roles/storage.admin
Language keywords	in, await
Method and function names	handleRequest
Namespace aliases	numpy
Placeholder variables	<YOUR_BUILD_DIR>
Query parameter names and values	/api/v4/{account_id}
Text input	"Hello Worker"