Building a CLI for all of Cloudflare (opens in new tab)
Cloudflare is rebuilding Wrangler into a unified CLI for its entire platform, motivated by the growing role of coding agents in configuring and deploying Cloudflare applications. The technical preview, available as `npx cf` or the globally installed `cf` package, currently covers only a subset of products but is intended to support the full API surface. The effort depends on a new TypeScript-based schema system that can generate consistent commands, configuration, bindings, documentation, and agent-oriented interfaces. ## A CLI for all of Cloudflare - Cloudflare offers more than 100 products and nearly 3,000 HTTP API operations. - Agents increasingly use Cloudflare APIs to: - Build and deploy applications - Configure accounts - Query analytics and logs - Create agents and platforms - Cloudflare aims to expose its products consistently through: - CLI commands - Workers Bindings - SDKs - Configuration files - Terraform - Documentation and OpenAPI schemas - MCP servers and Agent Skills - The new Wrangler technical preview can be tried with: - `npx cf` - `npm install -g cf` - A broader internal version already supports the full Cloudflare API, with ongoing work to make command output useful for both humans and agents. ## A new schema and code-generation pipeline - Existing OpenAPI schemas already generate: - Cloudflare SDKs - The Terraform provider - The Code Mode MCP server - Other interfaces, including Wrangler commands, Workers Bindings, configuration, documentation, and Agent Skills, were previously maintained manually. - Manual synchronization was error-prone and could not scale to Cloudflare’s full product range. - OpenAPI alone is insufficient because it primarily describes REST APIs, while Cloudflare also needs to represent: - Interactive CLI workflows - Multiple local and remote actions - RPC-style Workers Bindings - Agent Skills and related documentation - Cloudflare therefore created a TypeScript schema format containing: - API definitions - CLI commands and arguments - Context required to generate different interfaces - Conventions, linting, and guardrails enforce consistency while allowing the schema to generate OpenAPI and future interfaces. ## Consistency for agents and humans - Agents depend on predictable command names and flags. Inconsistent syntax can cause them to call commands that do not exist. - Cloudflare is enforcing conventions at the schema layer, including: - `get`, never `info` - `--force`, never `--skip-confirmations` - `--json`, never `--format` - Applying these rules across interfaces avoids discrepancies between the CLI, REST APIs, and SDKs. - Wrangler must also clearly distinguish local and remote resources. - This is especially important for D1, R2, and KV, where local simulation and remote bindings can coexist. - Clear defaults and output indicating whether an operation targets local or remote resources help agents avoid modifying the wrong environment. ## Local Explorer for simulated resources - Local Explorer is available in open beta through Wrangler and the Cloudflare Vite plugin. - It lets developers inspect locally simulated: - KV - R2 - D1 - Durable Objects - Workflows - Local resources use the same underlying API structure as Cloudflare’s remote APIs and Dashboard. - Cloudflare’s local development environment runs Workers APIs locally, including D1 backed by SQLite through Miniflare. - Previously, developers had to inspect `.wrangler/state` or use third-party tools to understand local data. - Local Explorer provides an interface showing: - Which bindings are attached to a Worker - What data those bindings contain - It can be opened with the `e` keyboard shortcut and helps developers or agents verify schemas, seed test data, and reset local databases. Cloudflare’s direction is to make Wrangler a consistent, machine-readable interface to the entire platform. The technical preview is early, but the new schema-driven system and Local Explorer establish the foundation for a CLI that is easier for both developers and coding agents to use safely.