What is Cloudflare Trace? What Does it Do and How to Use it? A Step-by-Step Technical Guide

Cloudflare Trace is an advanced testing tool used to analyze how an HTTP request to your website is affected by Cloudflare's configurations. It is an indispensable solution, especially for system administrators who want to verify whether redirects, rules, security filters, or cache settings are activated.

In this article, we explain the technical aspects of the Cloudflare Trace feature and show how to use it step by step with screen examples.

What is Cloudflare Trace?

Cloudflare Trace is a live analysis tool that simulates an HTTP request and analyzes which rules on Cloudflare's edge network this request passes through, which configurations are applied, and what happens as a result of the request.

Thanks to this feature:

You can transparently see the applied security rules,
Caching behaviors,
Bot filters,
And header manipulations.

When to Use It?

To check whether a newly created rule is working
To see the effect of configurations such as Firewall, Cache, Snippet, Redirect
To test whether URLs experiencing problems are blocked on the Cloudflare side
To simulate the same conditions as a request from a real user

⚙️ How to Use It? Step by Step

1. Log in to the Cloudflare Panel

Select the relevant domain name
Go to the Rules > Trace tab in the left menu

2. Enter URL

Enter the full URL you want to trace (e.g., https://example.com/test)

3. Select HTTP Method

Select a method such as GET, POST, PUT, HEAD (default: GET)

4. Customize the Request (Optional Settings)

Protocol: HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, HTTP/3
User-Agent & Headers: Custom user-agent or header definitions
Cookies: Session cookies, etc.
Geolocation: IP geolocation (country/region/city based)
Bot Score: A score to be detected as a bot (between 1-99)
Request Body: Content definition in POST requests
Skip Challenge: Full analysis is performed by disabling bot protection

5. Click the "Send Trace" Button

Cloudflare creates a simulation with the parameters you specified
A curl example and API command are displayed on the right in Request JSON format

Information Obtained with Trace

Which rules were triggered (Cache Rule, Firewall Rule, Redirect Rule, etc.)
Which Snippet ran
Which cookie was sent
Which User-Agent was detected
How the HTTP response was shaped

With this data, it becomes very clear where the problem is and at which step the behavior changes.

Usage Scenarios for Security and Performance

Is the Redirect working incorrectly? ➜ Check the redirect flow with Trace
Are Cache Rules being applied? ➜ Track Edge & Browser TTL values
Is Bot protection being activated unnecessarily? ➜ Test with bot score
Are header additions successful? ➜ Check response header

Conclusion

Cloudflare Trace incredibly simplifies the diagnostic and configuration verification processes for system administrators and developers. Instead of manual tests and fixing faulty configurations, you can see the effect of all rules with a single HTTP request and analyze your system behavior end-to-end.

It is recommended that you use this tool regularly for the security, speed, and correct operation of your site.