1# Cloudflare API Integration
2 
3Guide for working with Cloudflare's REST API - authentication, SDK usage, common patterns, and troubleshooting.
4 
5## Quick Decision Tree
6 
7```
8How are you calling the Cloudflare API?
9├─ From Workers runtime → Use bindings, not REST API (see ../bindings/)
10├─ Server-side (Node/Python/Go) → Official SDK (see api.md)
11├─ CLI/scripts → Wrangler or curl (see configuration.md)
12├─ Infrastructure-as-code → See ../pulumi/ or ../terraform/
13└─ One-off requests → curl examples (see api.md)
14```
15 
16## SDK Selection
17 
18| Language | Package | Best For | Default Retries |
19|----------|---------|----------|-----------------|
20| TypeScript | `cloudflare` | Node.js, Bun, Next.js, Workers | 2 |
21| Python | `cloudflare` | FastAPI, Django, scripts | 2 |
22| Go | `cloudflare-go/v4` | CLI tools, microservices | 10 |
23 
24All SDKs are Stainless-generated from OpenAPI spec (consistent APIs).
25 
26## Authentication Methods
27 
28| Method | Security | Use Case | Scope |
29|--------|----------|----------|-------|
30| **API Token** ✓ | Scoped, rotatable | Production | Per-zone or account |
31| API Key + Email | Full account access | Legacy only | Everything |
32| User Service Key | Limited | Origin CA certs only | Origin CA |
33 
34**Always use API tokens** for new projects.
35 
36## Rate Limits
37 
38| Limit | Value |
39|-------|-------|
40| Per user/token | 1200 requests / 5 minutes |
41| Per IP | 200 requests / second |
42| GraphQL | 320 / 5 minutes (cost-based) |
43 
44## Reading Order
45 
46| Task | Files to Read |
47|------|---------------|
48| Initialize SDK client | api.md |
49| Configure auth/timeout/retry | configuration.md |
50| Find usage patterns | patterns.md |
51| Debug errors/rate limits | gotchas.md |
52| Product-specific APIs | ../workers/, ../r2/, ../kv/, etc. |
53 
54## In This Reference
55 
56- **[api.md](api.md)** - SDK client initialization, pagination, error handling, examples
57- **[configuration.md](configuration.md)** - Environment variables, SDK config, Wrangler setup
58- **[patterns.md](patterns.md)** - Real-world patterns, batch operations, workflows
59- **[gotchas.md](gotchas.md)** - Rate limits, SDK-specific issues, troubleshooting
60 
61## See Also
62 
63- [Cloudflare API Docs](https://developers.cloudflare.com/api/)
64- [Bindings Reference](../bindings/) - Workers runtime bindings (preferred over REST API)
65- [Wrangler Reference](../wrangler/) - CLI tool for Cloudflare development
66- [GraphQL Analytics API Reference](../graphql-api/) - Analytics data via GraphQL (separate endpoint from REST API)
67