Cloudflare recently launched the open beta of cf, a new open-source, agent-focused command-line interface for interacting with Cloudflare services through a unified CLI. Written in TypeScript, it provides structured output and command discovery to make Cloudflare’s APIs easier for both developers and AI agents.
The hyperscaler argues that introducing a new CLI avoids conflicts with LLMs’ learned behavior around Wrangler, allowing cf to adopt agent-focused design changes without the compatibility constraints of an established tool. Matt Taylor, senior product manager at Cloudflare, and Samuel Macleod, senior systems engineer at Cloudflare, explain why a new CLI was needed:
Wrangler was hand-built with each product team contributing and taking their own approach to their command developer experience. Enforcing patterns across teams was virtually impossible, even across our ~280 command paths. We had inconsistent terminology across d1 info, hyperdrive get, workflows describe as each team came up with their own practices at different times.
Released under either the Apache License 2.0 or MIT license, the cf CLIcloudflare.config.ts configuration format. It also makes Vite the default development environment, providing a consistent local development experience and plugin support.
Using Cloudflare’s OpenAPI schemas as the source, cf can cover more than 3000 API operations, compared with roughly 280 functions built into Wrangler. Taylor and Macleod add:
We wanted to both standardize what we had and make a massive expansion, all at once. Forge — Cloudflare’s new unified API generation pipeline — enabled us to do this, building on the idea of generating our CLI commands directly from the API schema that powers our API documentation and SDK generation.
In a popular Hacker News thread, community reaction has focused in particular on the choice of TypeScript for a CLI, with discussion around startup time, portability, and dependency management. User slowin comments:
I don't understand why this is written in TypeScript. This is a great example of how agents can write code (I'm sure they wrote cf), yet having fundamental computer science knowledge is still critical. Do not force your users to manage the dependencies of your CLI. Do write your CLI in a compiled language.
Cloudflare argues instead that TypeScript makes configuration easier for both humans and agents by providing type safety and LSP support, enabling agents to understand and modify configurations more accurately. The authors contrast this with TOML and JSONC, where schema information is less accessible to agents, and say programmatic configuration can also reduce configuration duplication. Ashish Ganda notes on LinkedIn:
Cloudflare's new cf CLI outputs JSON by default. Not a table. You have to ask for the table (...) Tables are for eyes. JSON is for parsers.
Cloudflare makes JSON the default output format, allowing agents to filter and transform the output into the format required by human users while avoiding the table output used by default in Wrangler. The company plans to deprecate Wrangler after the cf open beta ends, release a final major Wrangler version directing users to cf, and provide 18 months of maintenance support to allow migration.