Enhanced WAF Rule Customization

Cloudflare has enhanced AI Crawl Control to support advanced customization of its underlying Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules. Previously, direct modifications made in the WAF custom rules editor could be lost when updating crawler actions. This update ensures those custom changes are now preserved.

What Developers Can Customize

With this update, you can now extend the AI Crawl Control WAF rule with:

• Path-based exceptions to allow crawlers access to specific routes
• Additional user agents to whitelist or block specific crawler types
• Custom expression clauses for more granular control over crawler behavior

These modifications remain intact when you make updates to crawler actions directly in the AI Crawl Control interface.

Error Handling and Warnings

If you modify the WAF rule expression in ways that AI Crawl Control cannot parse or understand, the system displays a warning banner on the Crawlers page. This warning includes a direct link to view and manage the rule in the WAF editor, ensuring you maintain visibility into rule complexity.

For complete guidance on managing these customizations, refer to the WAF rule management documentation.