DNS records

Command shape

DNS commands always use the cf dns <cmd> shape:

cf --profile personal dns get A @
cf --profile personal dns list TXT
cf --profile personal dns a @ 203.0.113.10

The profile can also come from CF_PROFILE.

Common record helpers

Use helpers for the record types you edit most often:

cf dns a @ 203.0.113.10 "Main site"
cf dns aaaa @ 2001:db8::10
cf dns cname www app.example.net
cf dns txt verify abc123
cf dns mx @ 10 mx1.mailhost.com
cf dns mx @ 20 mx2.mailhost.com
cf dns srv _sip._tcp 10 5 5060 sip.example.com

The optional final argument is a Cloudflare record comment where supported. MX helpers match existing records by both priority and mail server. This lets multiple MX records share the same key without one helper call overwriting another. Repeating an identical helper call updates that exact MX record.

TXT helpers match exact content. SRV helpers use Cloudflare’s structured priority, weight, port, and target fields and match all four fields. TXT, MX, and SRV records are always sent as DNS-only records.

Create without overwriting

Use create when the intent is always to insert a new record. It sends a POST without searching for an existing type/name pair:

cf dns create TXT @ "verification=value"
cf dns create MX @ mx2.mailhost.com --priority 20
cf dns create SRV _sip._tcp sip.example.com --priority 10 --weight 5 --port 5060

Use the shorter txt, mx, and srv helpers for safe, repeatable upserts.

Read before and after writes

A safe DNS workflow is:

cf dns get CNAME www
cf dns cname www app.example.net "Vercel app"
cf dns get CNAME www

For broad inspection:

cf dns list
cf dns list TXT
cf dns list CNAME www
cf dns get SRV _sip._tcp --json

--json preserves structured SRV data and is the recommended output for agents and scripts.

Preview writes

Add --dry-run to a write helper to print the exact payload without calling Cloudflare:

cf dns mx @ 10 mx1.mailhost.com --dry-run
cf dns srv _sip._tcp 10 5 5060 sip.example.com --dry-run
cf dns create TXT @ "verification=value" --dry-run

Delete carefully

Deletion supports value matching and all-record deletion for a key:

cf dns delete TXT verify --value abc123
cf dns delete TXT verify --all

Prefer --value when there may be multiple records with the same type and key.

Useful flags

--proxied=true|false
--ttl 3600
--upsert
--priority 10

Use --proxied=false for verification records and many third-party hosting targets unless the provider explicitly supports Cloudflare proxying.