1# Cloudflare Spectrum Skill Reference
2 
3## Overview
4 
5Cloudflare Spectrum provides security and acceleration for ANY TCP or UDP-based application. It's a global Layer 4 (L4) reverse proxy running on Cloudflare's edge nodes that routes MQTT, email, file transfer, version control, games, and more through Cloudflare to mask origins and protect from DDoS attacks.
6 
7**When to Use Spectrum**: When your protocol isn't HTTP/HTTPS (use Cloudflare proxy for HTTP). Spectrum handles everything else: SSH, gaming, databases, MQTT, SMTP, RDP, custom protocols.
8 
9## Plan Capabilities
10 
11| Capability | Pro/Business | Enterprise |
12|------------|--------------|------------|
13| TCP protocols | Selected ports only | All ports (1-65535) |
14| UDP protocols | Selected ports only | All ports (1-65535) |
15| Port ranges | ❌ | ✅ |
16| Argo Smart Routing | ✅ | ✅ |
17| IP Firewall | ✅ | ✅ |
18| Load balancer origins | ✅ | ✅ |
19 
20## Decision Tree
21 
22**What are you trying to do?**
23 
241. **Create/manage Spectrum app**
25   - Via Dashboard → See [Cloudflare Dashboard](https://dash.cloudflare.com)
26   - Via API → See [api.md](api.md) - REST endpoints
27   - Via SDK → See [api.md](api.md) - TypeScript/Python/Go examples
28   - Via IaC → See [configuration.md](configuration.md) - Terraform/Pulumi
29 
302. **Protect specific protocol**
31   - SSH → See [patterns.md](patterns.md#1-ssh-server-protection)
32   - Gaming (Minecraft, etc) → See [patterns.md](patterns.md#2-game-server)
33   - MQTT/IoT → See [patterns.md](patterns.md#3-mqtt-broker)
34   - SMTP/Email → See [patterns.md](patterns.md#4-smtp-relay)
35   - Database → See [patterns.md](patterns.md#5-database-proxy)
36   - RDP → See [patterns.md](patterns.md#6-rdp-remote-desktop)
37 
383. **Choose origin type**
39   - Direct IP (single server) → See [configuration.md](configuration.md#direct-ip-origin)
40   - CNAME (hostname) → See [configuration.md](configuration.md#cname-origin)
41   - Load balancer (HA/failover) → See [configuration.md](configuration.md#load-balancer-origin)
42 
43## Reading Order
44 
451. Start with [patterns.md](patterns.md) for your specific protocol
462. Then [configuration.md](configuration.md) for your origin type
473. Check [gotchas.md](gotchas.md) before going to production
484. Use [api.md](api.md) for programmatic access
49 
50## See Also
51 
52- [Cloudflare Docs](https://developers.cloudflare.com/spectrum/)
53