Automating Cloudflare Pages with the API

I needed to set up staging and production domains for my blog on Cloudflare Pages. You can do this through the dashboard but I don't know, I just didn't feel like clicking around. The API is right there.

What I Wanted

Pretty straightforward:

• eduuh.com → blog-2026 main branch
• staging.eduuh.com → blog-2026 staging branch

Getting API Access

Grabbed an API token from the Cloudflare dashboard. You need:

• Account > Cloudflare Pages > Edit
• Account > Account Settings > Read
• Zone > DNS > Edit (if you want to mess with DNS too)

Adding the Domains

Attaching custom domains to a Pages project:

# Root domain
curl -X POST \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/pages/projects/blog-2026/domains" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"name":"eduuh.com"}'
 
# Staging subdomain
curl -X POST \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/pages/projects/blog-2026/domains" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"name":"staging.eduuh.com"}'

Making Staging Actually Point to Staging

Here's the part that tripped me up. Both domains were now attached, but they both pointed to the main branch. Not super useful for a staging environment.

You have to explicitly tell Cloudflare which branch a domain should serve:

curl -X PATCH \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/pages/projects/blog-2026/domains/staging.eduuh.com" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"branch":"staging"}'

This was the key bit I couldn't figure out from the dashboard. The API made it obvious.

DNS While I'm At It

My domain's already on Cloudflare, so I figured I'd set up the DNS records via API too:

# Root domain
curl -X POST \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/{zone_id}/dns_records" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "type": "CNAME",
    "name": "@",
    "content": "blog-2026-290.pages.dev",
    "proxied": true
  }'
 
# Staging
curl -X POST \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/{zone_id}/dns_records" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "type": "CNAME",
    "name": "staging",
    "content": "blog-2026-290.pages.dev",
    "proxied": true
  }'

Both point to the same pages.dev subdomain - Cloudflare routes to the right branch based on the domain config we set earlier.

That's It

Push to main, production updates. Push to staging, staging updates.

The PATCH to map a specific branch to a domain was the thing I couldn't figure out how to do in the dashboard. Might be possible, I didn't look that hard. But the API made it obvious.

Claude figured out the APIs for me - saved me from digging through docs and clicking around the dashboard.