Cloudflare Spectrum Skill Reference
Cloudflare 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.
Overview
Cloudflare Spectrum Skill Reference
Overview
Cloudflare 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.
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.
Plan Capabilities
| Capability | Pro/Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| TCP protocols | Selected ports only | All ports (1-65535) |
| UDP protocols | Selected ports only | All ports (1-65535) |
| Port ranges | ❌ | ✅ |
| Argo Smart Routing | ✅ | ✅ |
| IP Firewall | ✅ | ✅ |
| Load balancer origins | ✅ | ✅ |
Decision Tree
What are you trying to do?
-
Create/manage Spectrum app
- Via Dashboard → See Cloudflare Dashboard
- Via API → See api.md - REST endpoints
- Via SDK → See api.md - TypeScript/Python/Go examples
- Via IaC → See configuration.md - Terraform/Pulumi
-
Protect specific protocol
- SSH → See patterns.md
- Gaming (Minecraft, etc) → See patterns.md
- MQTT/IoT → See patterns.md
- SMTP/Email → See patterns.md
- Database → See patterns.md
- RDP → See patterns.md
-
Choose origin type
- Direct IP (single server) → See configuration.md
- CNAME (hostname) → See configuration.md
- Load balancer (HA/failover) → See configuration.md
Reading Order
- Start with patterns.md for your specific protocol
- Then configuration.md for your origin type
- Check gotchas.md before going to production
- Use api.md for programmatic access