Cloudflare DNS Record: Technical Research Documentation

Introduction

DNS records are the foundational building blocks of the Domain Name System—they translate human-readable domain names into machine-usable addresses and routing information. Every website, email system, and internet-connected service relies on DNS records to function.

Cloudflare DNS offers a unique proposition: authoritative DNS served from 330+ global edge locations with built-in DDoS protection, zero per-query charges, and the ability to proxy traffic through Cloudflare's CDN/WAF infrastructure. This combination of DNS and edge services is what makes Cloudflare DNS records special—a simple A record isn't just DNS resolution, it can be a gateway to Cloudflare's entire security and performance platform.

This document provides comprehensive research into DNS record management on Cloudflare, examining the deployment landscape from manual operations to Infrastructure-as-Code, and explaining why Project Planton's approach offers the optimal balance of simplicity and power.

The Evolution of DNS Management

Early Days: Manual Zone Files

DNS configuration started with hand-edited zone files on BIND nameservers:

$TTL 86400
@   IN  SOA ns1.example.com. admin.example.com. (
            2024012301 ; Serial
            3600       ; Refresh
            1800       ; Retry
            604800     ; Expire
            86400 )    ; Minimum TTL

@   IN  NS  ns1.example.com.
@   IN  NS  ns2.example.com.
www IN  A   192.0.2.1

This approach required:

• Direct server access
• Manual file editing
• Service restarts to apply changes
• No validation before changes went live
• Expertise in zone file syntax

Cloud DNS Services

Cloud providers (AWS Route53, Google Cloud DNS, Azure DNS) introduced API-driven DNS management:

• Web consoles for visual management
• APIs for programmatic access
• Instant propagation (no restart needed)
• Built-in validation
• Global distribution

Cloudflare's Innovation

Cloudflare added a transformative feature: the proxy toggle. DNS records could now be more than just DNS—they could route traffic through Cloudflare's edge network, enabling:

• Orange Cloud (Proxied): Traffic flows through Cloudflare's CDN, WAF, and DDoS protection
• Grey Cloud (DNS-Only): Traditional DNS behavior

This duality means managing Cloudflare DNS records requires understanding not just DNS concepts, but also Cloudflare's edge services.

Deployment Methods Landscape

Level 0: Manual (Cloudflare Dashboard)

Workflow:

1. Log into Cloudflare Dashboard
2. Navigate to DNS → Records
3. Click "Add record"
4. Fill in type, name, value, TTL, proxy status
5. Save

Pros:

• Visual interface, no technical expertise needed
• Immediate feedback and validation
• Quick for one-off changes

Cons:

• No version control
• No reproducibility
• No audit trail
• Human error prone (typos, wrong values)
• Doesn't scale beyond a handful of records
• No automation

Verdict: Acceptable for initial exploration or emergency fixes. Not suitable for production infrastructure management.

Level 1: CLI (Cloudflare API via curl)

Example:

# Create an A record
curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/${ZONE_ID}/dns_records" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer ${API_TOKEN}" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     --data '{
       "type": "A",
       "name": "www",
       "content": "192.0.2.1",
       "ttl": 1,
       "proxied": true
     }'

# Update a record
curl -X PUT "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/${ZONE_ID}/dns_records/${RECORD_ID}" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer ${API_TOKEN}" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     --data '{
       "type": "A",
       "name": "www",
       "content": "192.0.2.2",
       "ttl": 1,
       "proxied": true
     }'

# Delete a record
curl -X DELETE "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/${ZONE_ID}/dns_records/${RECORD_ID}" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer ${API_TOKEN}"

Pros:

• Scriptable and automatable
• Can be versioned in scripts
• Works in CI/CD pipelines

Cons:

• Imperative (must manage state manually)
• No idempotency (running twice creates duplicates)
• Complex record management (need to track record IDs)
• Error handling is manual
• JSON responses require parsing

Verdict: Useful for simple automation scripts. Not recommended for managing multiple records or production infrastructure.

Level 2: Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform)

Example:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    cloudflare = {
      source  = "cloudflare/cloudflare"
      version = "~> 4.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "cloudflare" {
  api_token = var.cloudflare_api_token
}

# A Record
resource "cloudflare_record" "www" {
  zone_id = var.zone_id
  name    = "www"
  type    = "A"
  value   = "192.0.2.1"
  proxied = true
  ttl     = 1
  comment = "Primary web server"
}

# CNAME Record
resource "cloudflare_record" "api" {
  zone_id = var.zone_id
  name    = "api"
  type    = "CNAME"
  value   = "api-lb.example.com"
  proxied = true
}

# MX Record (note: cannot be proxied)
resource "cloudflare_record" "mx_primary" {
  zone_id  = var.zone_id
  name     = "@"
  type     = "MX"
  value    = "mail.example.com"
  priority = 10
}

Pros:

• Declarative configuration
• State management (tracks what exists)
• Plan before apply (see changes before making them)
• Version control friendly
• Idempotent (safe to run multiple times)
• Large community and ecosystem

Cons:

• Requires learning HCL syntax
• State file management complexity
• State locking for team collaboration
• Provider version management
• No type safety (values are strings)
• Verbose for simple records

Verdict: Industry standard for DNS IaC. Good choice for teams already using Terraform.

Level 3: Infrastructure-as-Code (Pulumi)

Example (Go):

package main

import (
	"github.com/pulumi/pulumi-cloudflare/sdk/v6/go/cloudflare"
	"github.com/pulumi/pulumi/sdk/v3/go/pulumi"
)

func main() {
	pulumi.Run(func(ctx *pulumi.Context) error {
		// A Record
		www, err := cloudflare.NewRecord(ctx, "www-record", &cloudflare.RecordArgs{
			ZoneId:  pulumi.String(zoneId),
			Name:    pulumi.String("www"),
			Type:    pulumi.String("A"),
			Value:   pulumi.String("192.0.2.1"),
			Proxied: pulumi.Bool(true),
			Ttl:     pulumi.Int(1),
			Comment: pulumi.String("Primary web server"),
		})
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}

		ctx.Export("recordId", www.ID())
		return nil
	})
}

Pros:

• Real programming language (Go, Python, TypeScript, etc.)
• Type safety and IDE support
• Testing with standard test frameworks
• Loops, conditionals, functions
• Reusable components
• Same state management benefits as Terraform

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve than HCL
• Requires language expertise
• Still verbose for simple records
• Less community adoption than Terraform

Verdict: Excellent choice for teams with programming expertise. Preferred when DNS configuration needs complex logic or integration with other services.

Other Methods

Ansible:

- name: Create DNS record
  cloudflare_dns:
    zone: example.com
    record: www
    type: A
    value: 192.0.2.1
    proxied: yes
  environment:
    CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN: "{{ cloudflare_token }}"

Better for configuration management workflows. Limited DNS-specific features.

Crossplane:

apiVersion: dns.cloudflare.upbound.io/v1alpha1
kind: Record
metadata:
  name: www-record
spec:
  forProvider:
    zoneId: abc123
    name: www
    type: A
    value: 192.0.2.1
    proxied: true

Kubernetes-native approach. Good for Kubernetes-centric teams but adds complexity for simple DNS management.

Comparative Analysis

The Project Planton Approach

Project Planton applies the Kubernetes Resource Model (KRM) philosophy to DNS records, providing a clean, declarative API that abstracts away the complexity of different IaC tools.

Design Philosophy

1. 80/20 Principle: The component exposes only the essential fields that 80% of users need:

• zone_id - Where to create the record
• name - The subdomain (or @ for root)
• type - A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, etc.
• value - The record target/content
• proxied - Orange cloud or grey cloud
• ttl - Time to live
• priority - For MX/SRV records
• comment - Documentation

Advanced Cloudflare features (tags, priority for A records, custom metadata) are intentionally excluded because they're rarely needed and add cognitive overhead.

2. Unified API:

apiVersion: cloudflare.project-planton.org/v1
kind: CloudflareDnsRecord
metadata:
  name: www-a-record
spec:
  zone_id: "abc123"
  name: "www"
  type: A
  value: "192.0.2.1"
  proxied: true

This manifest works with both Pulumi and Terraform backends—users don't need to know which IaC tool is executing.

3. Built-in Validation: The protobuf schema enforces rules at definition time:

• Required fields (zone_id, name, type, value)
• TTL range validation (1 or 60-86400)
• Priority range (0-65535)
• Cross-field validation (proxied only for A/AAAA/CNAME)
• Priority required for MX records

4. Consistent Outputs: Every deployment produces the same outputs:

• record_id - Cloudflare record identifier
• hostname - Fully qualified hostname
• record_type - The created record type
• proxied - Whether traffic is proxied

Why This Matters

Before Project Planton:

# Team A uses Terraform
terraform init
terraform plan -var="zone_id=abc" -var="name=www" ...
terraform apply

# Team B uses Pulumi
pulumi stack init
pulumi config set zone_id abc
pulumi up

# Team C uses curl scripts
./create-dns-record.sh www A 192.0.2.1

With Project Planton:

# Everyone uses the same command
planton apply -f record.yaml

# Switch IaC backend without changing manifests
planton apply -f record.yaml --iac terraform

Implementation Landscape

Pulumi Module Architecture

The Pulumi implementation follows a modular structure:

iac/pulumi/
├── main.go           # Entry point, loads stack input
├── Pulumi.yaml       # Project configuration
├── Makefile          # Build and test targets
└── module/
    ├── main.go       # Resource orchestration
    ├── locals.go     # Data transformation
    ├── outputs.go    # Output constants
    └── dns_record.go # Cloudflare record creation

Key implementation details:

1. Stack input deserialization from environment variable
2. Cloudflare provider setup with credentials
3. Record creation with proper type mapping
4. Output export for downstream consumers

Terraform Module Architecture

The Terraform implementation maintains feature parity:

iac/tf/
├── provider.tf      # Cloudflare provider configuration
├── variables.tf     # Input variables (generated from spec.proto)
├── locals.tf        # Computed values
├── main.tf          # Record resource definition
├── outputs.tf       # Output values
└── README.md        # Module documentation

Key implementation details:

1. Variables mirror the protobuf spec exactly
2. Locals handle type conversion and defaults
3. Single cloudflare_record resource
4. Outputs match stack_outputs.proto

Production Best Practices

Record Type Selection

TTL Guidelines

Security Considerations

1. Use Proxied Records: Hides origin IP, enables WAF
2. CAA Records: Restrict certificate issuance to specific CAs
3. SPF/DKIM/DMARC: Complete email authentication chain
4. API Token Scope: Use tokens with minimal permissions (Zone:DNS:Edit)

Common Pitfalls

1. Proxying MX Records: MX records cannot be proxied. Attempting to set proxied: true for MX will fail or cause email issues.

2. Multiple SPF Records: Only one SPF TXT record per domain. Multiple records cause validation failures.

3. Root Domain CNAME: Traditional DNS doesn't allow CNAME at root. Cloudflare supports this via CNAME flattening, but other providers may not.

4. TTL on Proxied Records: Proxied records always show TTL as "Auto" in dashboard because Cloudflare manages caching. Your specified TTL only applies to grey-cloud records.

Monitoring and Alerting

1. DNS Resolution Monitoring: Set up external monitors to verify records resolve correctly
2. Certificate Expiry: Monitor SSL certificates for proxied records
3. Email Deliverability: Monitor SPF/DKIM pass rates
4. Change Tracking: Use IaC commit history as audit trail

Conclusion

DNS record management has evolved from manual zone file editing to sophisticated Infrastructure-as-Code workflows. Cloudflare's unique proxy feature adds another dimension—DNS records become entry points to a full edge security and performance platform.

Project Planton's CloudflareDnsRecord component offers the optimal balance:

• Simplicity: Clean protobuf API with only essential fields
• Safety: Built-in validation catches errors before deployment
• Flexibility: Works with both Pulumi and Terraform
• Consistency: Same manifest format across all environments
• Production-Ready: Comprehensive outputs for integration

For teams managing DNS across multiple domains and environments, Project Planton provides the abstraction layer that makes DNS management predictable, reproducible, and maintainable.

References

• Cloudflare DNS Documentation
• Cloudflare API Reference
• Terraform Cloudflare Provider
• Pulumi Cloudflare Provider
• RFC 1035 - DNS
• RFC 7208 - SPF
• RFC 8659 - CAA