Skip to content

Prioritized traffic

Last updated View as MarkdownAgent setup

Prioritized traffic allows you to define which applications Cloudflare One Appliance (formerly Magic WAN Connector) should process first. Applications not in the list will be queued behind prioritized traffic.

Similarly to breakout traffic, prioritized traffic also works via DNS requests inspection.

Add an application to your account

Before you can add or remove Prioritized traffic applications to your Cloudflare One Appliance, you need an account-level list with the applications that you want to configure. This list contains two kinds of applications:

  • Cloudflare-managed applications — Cloudflare's built-in catalog of recognized applications. These already exist in your account and do not need to be created. Select them directly when assigning application traffic.
  • Custom applications — applications you define by hostname, IP subnet, and/or source subnet. You can create, edit, and delete custom applications directly from the dashboard or through the Create an account app endpoint.

Create, edit, or delete a custom application

  1. Go to the Connectors page.
Go to Connectors ↗
  1. Go to the Appliances tab > Profiles.
  2. Select the Cloudflare One Appliance you want to configure > Edit.
  3. Select Traffic Steering.
  4. In Prioritized traffic, select Assign application traffic.
  5. In Custom applications, select Add to create a new custom application, and enter:
    • Name — a display name for the application.
    • Category — an optional group label, such as Productivity or Video conferencing.
    • At least one of Hostnames, IP subnets, or Source subnets — the traffic that identifies this application. Hostnames must be valid FQDNs (for example auth.example.com). IP subnets and source subnets must be valid IPv4 CIDRs (for example 10.0.0.0/24). A single address needs a /32 suffix. IPv6 is not yet supported.
  6. Select Add application.
  7. To change or remove an existing custom application, select the three dots next to it in the Custom applications table, then Edit or Delete.

Send a POST request to create a custom application in your account. The following example uses all three optional match criteria:

Required API token permissions

At least one of the following token permissions is required:
  • Magic WAN Write
  • Magic Transit Write
Create a new Appbash
curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/magic/apps" \
	--request POST \
	--header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \
	--json '{
		"name": "Example application",
		"type": "Productivity",
		"hostnames": [
				"auth.example.com"
		],
		"ip_subnets": [
				"192.0.2.0/24"
		],
		"source_subnets": [
				"10.0.0.0/24"
		]
	}'
{
	"result": {
		"account_app_id": "eb09v665c0784618a3e4ba9809258fd4",
		"name": "Example application",
		"type": "Productivity",
		"hostnames": ["auth.example.com"],
		"ip_subnets": ["192.0.2.0/24"],
		"source_subnets": ["10.0.0.0/24"]
	},
	"success": true,
	"errors": [],
	"messages": []
}

You can now add this new app to the Prioritized traffic list in your Cloudflare One Appliance.

Add an application to Cloudflare One Appliance

You need to configure Prioritized traffic applications for each of your existing sites, as this is a per-site configuration.

  1. Go to the Connectors page.
Go to Connectors ↗
  1. Go to the Appliances tab > Profiles.

  2. Select the Cloudflare One Appliance you want to configure > Edit.

  3. Select Traffic Steering.

  4. In Prioritized traffic, select Assign application traffic.

  5. Select one or more applications that should be processed first, from either Custom applications or Cloudflare-managed applications. You can also use the search box, or select Add to define a new custom application without leaving this panel — refer to Create, edit, or delete a custom application.

  6. Select Save.

The traffic for the application you chose is now processed first by Connector.

  1. Send a GET request to list the applications associated with an account.

    Required API token permissions

    At least one of the following token permissions is required:
    • Magic WAN Write
    • Magic WAN Read
    • Magic Transit Read
    • Magic Transit Write
    List Appsbash
    curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/magic/apps" \
    	--request GET \
    	--header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN"
    	{
    		"result": [
    			{
    				"managed_app_id": "<APP_ID>",
    				"name": "<APP_NAME>",
    				"type": "File Sharing",
    				"hostnames": [
    					"<app_name.com>",
    					"<app-name.info>"
    				]
    			}
    		]
    	}

    Take note of the "managed_app_id" value for any application you want to add.

  2. Send a POST request to add new apps to the Prioritized traffic policy.

    Required API token permissions

    At least one of the following token permissions is required:
    • Magic WAN Write
    • Magic Transit Write
    Create a new App Configbash
    curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/magic/sites/$SITE_ID/app_configs" \
    	--request POST \
    	--header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \
    	--json '{
    		"managed_app_id": "<MANAGED_APP_ID>",
    		"breakout": true
    	}'
    {
    	"result": {
    		"account_app_id": "<APP_ID>",
    		"name": "<APP_NAME>",
    		"type": "<BREAKOUT_OR_PRIORITY>"
    	},
    	"success": true,
    	"errors": [],
    	"messages": []
    }

Custom applications defined with Source subnets can also be marked as prioritized this way. Refer to Breakout by source for the full set of source-based match criteria.

Delete an application from Cloudflare One Appliance

  1. Go to the Connectors page.
Go to Connectors ↗
  1. Go to the Appliances tab > Profiles.

  2. Select the Appliance you want to configure > Edit.

  3. Select Traffic Steering.

  4. In Prioritized traffic, find the application you want to delete > select the three dots next to it > Remove application traffic.

  5. (Optional) If you have several pages of applications, you can use the search box to quickly find the application you are looking for.

You need to delete Prioritized traffic applications for each of your existing sites, as this is a per-site configuration.

  1. Send a GET request to list the applications associated with a site.

    Required API token permissions

    At least one of the following token permissions is required:
    • Magic WAN Write
    • Magic WAN Read
    • Magic Transit Read
    • Magic Transit Write
    List App Configsbash
    curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT_ID/magic/sites/$SITE_ID/app_configs" \
    	--request GET \
    	--header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN"
    	{
    		"result": [
    			{
    				"id": "<APP_ID>",
    				"site_id": "<SITE_ID>",
    				"managed_app_id": "<APP_NAME>",
    				"breakout": true
    			}
    		]
    	}

    Take note of the "id" value for the application that you want to delete.

  2. Send a DELETE request to delete an application from the Prioritized traffic policy.

    curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/%7Baccount_id%7D/magic/sites/%7Bsite_id%7D/app_configs/%7Bid%7D" \
    	--request DELETE
    {
    		"result": {
    				"id": "<APP_ID>",
    				"site_id": "<SITE_ID>",
    				"managed_app_id": "<APP_NAME>",
    				"breakout": true
    		},
    		"success": true,
    		"errors": [],
    		"messages": []
    }

Was this helpful?