--- description: Create your first Cloudflare Tunnel and publish an application in under 5 minutes. title: Setup image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png --- [Skip to content](#main-content) > Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Setup Last updated Sep 1, 2026|Copy as Markdown| [View as Markdown](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/setup/index.md)| [Agent setup](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/) Create a Cloudflare Tunnel and publish your first application in under 5 minutes. ## Prerequisites - A [Cloudflare account ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/sign-up) - A [domain on Cloudflare](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/manage-domains/add-site/) (required to publish applications) - A server or VM with internet access where you will install `cloudflared` Tip If your server is behind a restrictive firewall, verify it can reach Cloudflare on port `7844` before proceeding. Refer to [Connection errors](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/troubleshooting/#connection-errors). ## Create a tunnel To create a new Cloudflare Tunnel: 1. In the [Cloudflare dashboard ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/), go to **Networking** > **Tunnels**. [Go to **Tunnels** ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/tunnels) 2. Select **Create Tunnel**. 3. Enter a name for your tunnel (for example, `production-web` or `staging-api`). 4. Select **Create Tunnel**. 5. Under **Setup Environment**, select the operating system and architecture of your server. 6. Copy the install commands shown under **Install and Run** and run them in a terminal on your server. 7. Once the tunnel connects, select **Continue**. Your tunnel should appear on the **Tunnels** page with a `Healthy` [status](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/monitoring/#tunnel-health). 1. [Create an API token](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/api/get-started/create-token/) with the following permissions: | Type | Item | Permission | | --- | --- | --- | | Account | Cloudflare Tunnel | Edit | | Zone | DNS | Edit | 2. Create a tunnel:
Required API token permissions At least one of the following token permissions is required: - Cloudflare One Connectors Write - Cloudflare One Connector: cloudflared Write - Cloudflare Tunnel Write
*Create a Cloudflare Tunnelbash* ```bash curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/cfd_tunnel" \ --request POST \ --header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \ --json '{ "name": "api-tunnel", "config_src": "cloudflare" }' ``` 3. Copy the `id` and `token` values from the response. You will need them to configure and run the tunnel. ## Publish an application To make an application accessible from the Internet, add a published application route to your tunnel. The tunnel route maps a public hostname to a local service. 1. In the [Cloudflare dashboard ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/), go to **Networking** > **Tunnels** and select your tunnel. [Go to **Tunnels** ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/tunnels) 2. Under **Routes**, select **Add route**. 3. Select **Published application**. 4. Under **Hostname**, enter a subdomain and select a domain from the drop-down menu. 5. For **Service URL**, enter the local address and port of your application. For example, if your web server runs on the same machine as `cloudflared`: - HTTP on port `80`: `http://localhost:80` - HTTPS on port `443`: `https://localhost:443` If your web server runs on a different machine: `http://192.0.2.1:80` 6. Select **Add route**. 1. Configure your tunnel's ingress rules:
Required API token permissions At least one of the following token permissions is required: - Cloudflare One Connectors Write - Cloudflare One Connector: cloudflared Write - Cloudflare Tunnel Write
*Update Tunnel configurationbash* ```bash curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/cfd_tunnel/$TUNNEL_ID/configurations" \ --request PUT \ --header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \ --json '{ "config": { "ingress": [ { "hostname": "app.example.com", "service": "http://localhost:80", "originRequest": {} }, { "service": "http_status:404" } ] } }' ``` Your ingress rules must include a catch-all rule at the end. In this example, `cloudflared` will respond with a 404 status code when the request does not match any hostname. 2. Create a DNS record for your application:
Required API token permissions At least one of the following token permissions is required: - DNS Write
*Create DNS Recordbash* ```bash curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/$ZONE_ID/dns_records" \ --request POST \ --header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \ --json '{ "type": "CNAME", "proxied": true, "name": "app.example.com", "content": ".cfargotunnel.com" }' ``` 3. Install `cloudflared` on your server and run the tunnel using the `token` obtained in [Create a tunnel](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/setup/#create-a-tunnel): 1. [Download and install ↗](https://pkg.cloudflare.com/index.html) `cloudflared`. 2. Run the following command: ```sh sudo cloudflared service install ``` 1. [Download and install](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/networks/connectors/cloudflare-tunnel/downloads/#windows) `cloudflared`. 2. Open Command Prompt as administrator. 3. Run the following command: ```txt cloudflared.exe service install ``` 1. [Download and install](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/networks/connectors/cloudflare-tunnel/downloads/#macos) `cloudflared`. 2. Open a terminal window and run the following command: ```sh sudo cloudflared service install ``` 1. Open a terminal window. 2. Run the following command: ```sh docker run cloudflare/cloudflared:latest tunnel --no-autoupdate run --token ``` Your application is now live at the hostname you configured. Cloudflare automatically proxies traffic through its network, applying CDN caching, WAF, and DDoS protection. Note Non-HTTP services (SSH, TCP, RDP) require `cloudflared` on the client side. Refer to the [protocols reference](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/routing/#supported-protocols) for details. ## Quick tunnels (development) For local development, you can instantly expose localhost without a Cloudflare account: ```sh cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:8080 ``` This generates a random `trycloudflare.com` subdomain that proxies traffic to your local server. Quick tunnels are for testing only — they have a 200 concurrent request limit and do not support Server-Sent Events (SSE). For production use, [create a tunnel](#create-a-tunnel) instead. ## Next steps - [Routing](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/routing/) — Configure DNS records, load balancers, and protocol support. - [Configuration](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/configuration/) — Deploy replicas, manage tokens, and tune performance. - [Deployment guides](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/deployment-guides/) — Deploy on Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, Terraform, and more. - [Troubleshooting](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/troubleshooting/) — Resolve common errors and connectivity issues. Was this helpful? YesNo ## On this page [![](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/_astro/logo.te5VL_aD.svg)Docs](https://0285ca83.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","@id":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/setup/#page","headline":"Set up Cloudflare Tunnel · Cloudflare Docs","description":"Create your first Cloudflare Tunnel and publish an application in under 5 minutes.","url":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/setup/","inLanguage":"en","image":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png","dateModified":"2026-09-01","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Cloudflare","description":"One platform for your apps, agents, and workforce. Build, secure, and scale without managing infrastructure","url":"https://www.cloudflare.com/","sameAs":["https://github.com/cloudflare","https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloudflare","https://x.com/cloudflare"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/logo.svg"},"address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"101 Townsend St","addressLocality":"San Francisco","addressRegion":"CA","postalCode":"94107","addressCountry":"US"},"contactPoint":[{"@type":"ContactPoint","contactType":"Customer Support","url":"https://support.cloudflare.com/","availableLanguage":["English"]},{"@type":"ContactPoint","contactType":"Sales","url":"https://www.cloudflare.com/contact/","availableLanguage":["English"]}]},"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/#website","name":"Cloudflare Docs","url":"https://developers.cloudflare.com/"}} ```