---
description: You can now extend the AI Crawl Control WAF rule with custom user agents, path-based exceptions, and additional expression clauses without affecting your AI Crawl Control settings.
title: Advanced WAF customization for AI Crawl Control blocks
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/changelog/post/2026-03-24-waf-rule-preservation/og.png?v=b1d864deb939da05
---

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March 24, 2026

## Advanced WAF customization for AI Crawl Control blocks

[AI Crawl Control](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-crawl-control/)

Copy as Markdown| [View as Markdown](https://developers.cloudflare.com/changelog/post/2026-03-24-waf-rule-preservation/index.md)| [Agent setup](https://developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

AI Crawl Control now supports extending the underlying WAF rule with custom modifications. Any changes you make directly in the WAF custom rules editor — such as adding path-based exceptions, extra user agents, or additional expression clauses — are preserved when you update crawler actions in AI Crawl Control.

If the WAF rule expression has been modified in a way AI Crawl Control cannot parse, a warning banner appears on the **Crawlers** page with a link to view the rule directly in WAF.

For more information, refer to [WAF rule management](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ai-crawl-control/features/manage-ai-crawlers/#waf-rule-management).

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