Start here: which path is this site owner on?

The site apps run inside the owner's own Cloudflare account, on a site hosted on Cloudflare Pages or Workers with static assets. Many owners aren't there yet. This playbook finds out where they are in a few minutes and sends you to the right next step. Run it before you recommend or install anything.

How to run it

• Detect first, ask second. Every question below has a check you can run yourself. Only ask the owner what you couldn't find out, and tell them what you checked.
• Ask one question at a time, in plain words. The owner may not know what DNS or a terminal is: the "ask" lines are written for them.
• Never ask for a password, token or API key in the chat.
• Don't change anything while you run this playbook. It only reads.
• Write down the answers (the getting-started skill keeps them in .site-apps/onboarding.md in the project), so a new session doesn't ask again.

The seven questions

1. Can you run commands?

You need a shell to run Wrangler, git and the installer. Check by running something harmless:

node --version && npx --version && git --version

• It runs: good. Wrangler supports the Current, Active and Maintenance versions of Node.js (Install Wrangler); if node --version is older than that, update Node first.
• You can't run commands at all (a chat-only app): stop here and follow No GitHub and no terminal.

2. Is there a website already?

• Detect: are you in a project folder? Look for package.json, index.html, a framework config (astro.config.*, next.config.*, hugo.toml, vite.config.*, eleventy.config.*), and git remote -v.
• Ask: "Do you already have a website? If so, what's its address?"

If there is no site, skip to question 5 and then route to Start a site on Cloudflare.

3. Where is the site hosted?

Detect from the project:

Detect from the live site (hints, not proof; confirm with the owner):

curl -sI https://example.com | grep -iE '^(server|x-powered-by|cf-ray|x-vercel-id|x-nf-request-id):'
dig +short CNAME www.example.com

• server: cloudflare with a cf-ray header means traffic goes through Cloudflare. It does not prove the site is hosted on Pages or Workers: a WordPress or Webflow site behind the Cloudflare proxy looks the same. Check the repo or ask.
• x-vercel-id points to Vercel, x-nf-request-id or server: Netlify to Netlify, server: GitHub.com to GitHub Pages. A CNAME to *.netlify.app, *.vercel-dns.com, *.github.io, *.pages.dev, cdn.webflow.com, shops.myshopify.com or a Squarespace host says the same. These header and host names are common observations, not documented guarantees: unverified as a complete list.
• Ask: "Where does your site live? For example Cloudflare, Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages, WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace, Wix or Shopify."

If you can see it's on Cloudflare, confirm which project: npx wrangler deployments list (Workers) or npx wrangler pages project list (Pages) once Wrangler is logged in.

4. Is there a domain, and where is its DNS?

• Detect: the site's address from question 2. If it's *.workers.dev, *.pages.dev, *.netlify.app, *.vercel.app or *.github.io, there's no custom domain yet.

• Check where DNS is answered:

  TerminalCopy

  dig +short NS example.com
  # no dig? The Cloudflare DNS over HTTPS answers the same question:
  curl -s -H 'accept: application/dns-json' 'https://cloudflare-dns.com/dns-query?name=example.com&type=NS'
  

  Two names ending in .ns.cloudflare.com mean the DNS is on Cloudflare. Anything else (domaincontrol.com is GoDaddy, registrar-servers.com is Namecheap, and so on) means it's elsewhere.

• Ask, if there's no domain: "Do you own a domain name, like yourbusiness.com? Where did you buy it?" A domain is optional to start: a free workers.dev address works on day one.

Sources: Cloudflare full setup: check nameservers, DNS over HTTPS JSON API.

5. Is there a Cloudflare account, and can you use it?

npx wrangler whoami

• "You are logged in…" with an account: done.
• "You are not authenticated": ask "Do you have a Cloudflare account?" If not, or if you can't log in from here, follow Create a Cloudflare account and connect Wrangler.
• An MCP server or connector with Cloudflare tools in your session also counts. Check what it can do; the install guide's step 1 lists the capabilities.

6. Is there GitHub (or GitLab)?

git remote -v
gh auth status   # if the GitHub CLI is installed

• A remote on github.com and Logged in to github.com is everything you need for git deploys.
• No GitHub is fine. Sites can deploy straight from this computer with Wrangler; git deploys can come later. Ask only if you're about to set up git deploys: "Do you have a GitHub account? It's free and lets your site update every time you save a change, but you don't need it to start."

7. Who deploys today?

• Detect: a GitHub Actions workflow, Workers Builds or Pages Git integration (the Cloudflare dashboard shows "Connected to GitHub"), or nothing (deployed by hand).
• This decides whether the install ends with a git push or a wrangler deploy. The install guide covers both.

Route

Pick the first row that matches and tell the owner, in one or two sentences, what happens next and roughly how long it takes.

The domain runs in parallel, never in front. If the owner has a domain whose DNS isn't on Cloudflare, start the site on its free workers.dev address first and do Move your domain's DNS to Cloudflare alongside. The nameserver change can take up to 24 hours; nothing else has to wait for it. The license treats *.workers.dev and *.pages.dev as free test addresses.

One special case on Cloudflare: a Pages project whose build contains its own _worker.js isn't supported yet. The install guide's step 0 says what to tell the owner.

Say it plainly

Good: "Your site is on Webflow. The apps can't run on Webflow sites yet; that's planned. Today I can show you free how-tos, or help you move to Cloudflare if you ever want to. Nothing changes unless you say so."

Good: "You don't have a Cloudflare account yet. It's free and takes about 3 minutes; I'll walk you through it and tell you exactly what to click."

Never: push a move to another host, say an app "works with" a host it doesn't, start a checkout before the site can run the app, or block the whole setup on the DNS wait.

Sources

• Cloudflare full setup (nameservers, dig ns, up to 24 hours)
• Wrangler login and whoami
• workers.dev addresses
• GitHub CLI gh auth
• Hosts and proxying: the research note behind these playbooks lists each host's official guidance.