· Updated

Launching secure Cloudflare-proxied apps the Nexarq way

Nexarq.ai builds calmly opinionated experiences. When we inherit an application that already sits behind Cloudflare, our first instinct is to turn that proxy into an intelligent edge platform—not just a pass-through.

TL;DR

  1. Anchor every proxied app behind Cloudflare App Security primitives (DNS, WAF, Bot Management, API Shield) before tuning performance knobs.
  2. Let Workers orchestrate CDN, database compute (D1/Hyperdrive), and container workloads so the edge becomes your control plane.
  3. Ship with living reference architectures and runbooks so teams can evolve safely without redrawing diagrams every sprint.

Why Cloudflare-first matters for proxied apps

  • Unified policy surface – DNS, security, caching, routing, and workers are authored in the same dashboard/API, drastically lowering handoff latency between teams.
  • App-aware security – Managed rulesets, API schema validation, and mutual TLS are edge-native, so traffic never leaves the Anycast perimeter unvetted.
  • Programmable CDN – Workers and Cache API let us compose micro-optimizations (compression, A/B headers, signed URLs) without rebuilding the origin.
  • Serverless adjacency to data/compute – With D1, Vectorize, R2, and Workers calling out to Cloudflare’s container platform or external clusters, we can push data gravity back toward the user.

Reference architecture #1 – Zero-trust shield with intelligent CDN

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|                          Clients                             |
|  - Browsers                                                  |
|  - Mobile apps                                               |
|  - API consumers                                             |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
                              |
                              v
+-----------------------------+         +----------------------+
|  Cloudflare DNS & Anycast   | -----> |  Zero-Trust Policies |
+-----------------------------+         +----------------------+
                              |
                              v
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|  WAAP Layer                                                   |
|  - DDoS / Rate Limiting                                      |
|  - WAF Managed Rules                                         |
|  - API Shield (mTLS, schema validation)                      |
|  - Bot Management                                            |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
                              |
                              v
+-----------------------------+         +----------------------+
|  Workers Security Adapter   | -----> |  Security headers,   |
|                             |        |  auth, logging       |
+-----------------------------+         +----------------------+
                              |
                              v
+-----------------------------+                +---------------+
|  Cache Tier (Cache API,    |  ----------->  |  Static R2    |
|  Tiered Cache, Reserve)    |   cold miss    |  assets       |
+-----------------------------+                +---------------+
                              |
                              v
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|              Origin APIs / Services                          |
|  - Kubernetes / microservices                               |
|  - Legacy monolith                                          |
|  - Third-party SaaS APIs                                    |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

Key plays

  • Terminate TLS in Cloudflare, enforce mutual TLS for admin paths, and attach Bot Management challenges to credential-stuffing patterns.
  • Inject security headers (CSP, F-LoC opt-out, Signed Exchanges) directly in the worker to guarantee uniform posture.
  • Use Cache Reserve or Tiered Cache so the origin sees only cache misses while Workers handle per-user personalization via KV or Durable Objects.

Worker security adapter example

import { createClient } from '@cloudflare/kv-asset-handler';

export default {
  async fetch(request, env, ctx) {
    const cf = request.cf;

    // 1. Enforce geography + device posture before origin
    if (!['in', 'sg', 'us'].includes(cf?.country ?? '')) {
      return new Response('Region blocked', { status: 451 });
    }

    // 2. Check API schema via API Shield metadata header
    if (!request.headers.get('cf-api-schema-valid')) {
      return new Response('Schema mismatch', { status: 400 });
    }

    // 3. Serve cached static variants or fall through to origin
    const asset = await createClient(env.ASSETS)
      .get(new URL(request.url).pathname);
    if (asset) {
      return new Response(asset.body, {
        headers: { 'cache-control': 'max-age=86400, immutable' },
      });
    }

    // 4. Proxy to origin with Zero-Trust service token attached
    const originResponse = await fetch(env.ORIGIN_URL, {
      headers: {
        ...Object.fromEntries(request.headers),
        'cf-access-service-token': env.ZT_TOKEN,
      },
    });

    return new Response(originResponse.body, originResponse);
  },
};

This mirrors the patterns in Cloudflare’s Worker examples while staying mindful of Nexarq’s minimal, trusted tone.

Reference architecture #2 – Edge control plane for DB compute + containers

+---------------------+             +-------------------------+
|       Clients       |  ------->   |  Cloudflare DNS & Edge |
+---------------------+             +-------------------------+
                                          |
                                          v
                                  +--------------------+
                                  | Zero-Trust Layer  |
                                  | - Access / SSO    |
                                  | - Identity        |
                                  +--------------------+
                                          |
                                          v
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|                    Workers Orchestrator                      |
|  (single logical entrypoint for edge logic)                  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
   | (a) Pages / HTML rendering      | (b) D1 / Hyperdrive     
   |                                 |                         
   v                                 v                         
+----------------------+       +-----------------------------+
| Pages Functions      |       | D1 / Hyperdrive            |
| - cache + render     |       | - transactional queries    |
+----------------------+       +-----------------------------+
   | (c) Per-tenant state        | (d) Heavy compute         
   v                             v                           
+----------------------+       +-----------------------------+
| Durable Objects      |       | Containers / external      |
| - coordination       |       | - K8s, Workers for         |
| - locks, sessions    |       |   Platforms, queues, etc.  |
+----------------------+       +-----------------------------+
                                          |
                                          v
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|                Analytics & AI Sinks                          |
|  - Workers AI, Vectorize, R2, Logpush                        |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

Flow

  1. Worker validates JWT or Cloudflare Access headers and routes read-heavy requests to CDN + KV.
  2. For transactional writes, Worker calls D1 (or Hyperdrive for Postgres) to keep latency under 50 ms globally.
  3. Compute-heavy jobs trigger a lightweight queue message to containerized workloads (e.g., Workers for Platforms, Fly.io, or Kubernetes) while streaming progressive responses to the client.
  4. Observability beacons are logged via Logpush or Durable Objects so SecOps and SRE share the same traces.

Worker-driven orchestration snippet

export default {
  async fetch(request, env) {
    const url = new URL(request.url);

    if (url.pathname.startsWith('/api/content')) {
      const cacheKey = `content:${url.searchParams.get('slug')}`;
      const cached = await env.CONTENT_KV.get(cacheKey, 'json');
      if (cached) return Response.json(cached, { headers: env.CACHE_HEADERS });

      const db = env.NEXARQ_DB.prepare('select * from posts where slug = ?');
      const record = await db.bind(url.searchParams.get('slug')).first();
      ctx.waitUntil(env.CONTENT_KV.put(cacheKey, JSON.stringify(record)));
      return Response.json(record);
    }

    if (url.pathname === '/api/render') {
      const job = await fetch(env.CONTAINER_ENDPOINT, {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${env.CONTAINER_TOKEN}` },
        body: await request.text(),
      });
      return new Response(job.body, job);
    }

    return fetch(env.ORIGIN_URL + url.pathname + url.search);
  },
};

Operational checklist (Nexarq playbook)

  • Security baselines: Enable Bot Fight Mode, Custom WAF rules mapped to OWASP API Top 10, and always-on DDoS in “Essentially Off” mode to avoid surprise challenges.
  • Performance tuning: Deploy Tiered Cache + Early Hints, adopt Cache-Tag headers for instant purge, and co-locate Workers with the closest colo via Smart Placement.
  • Data/compute: Treat D1 + Durable Objects as your transactional edge, R2 for artifact storage, and containers for burst compute via Cloudflare Queues triggers.
  • Observability: Stream logs to Logpush (R2 or S3) and ingest into whatever Nexarq uses (e.g., Grafana, OpenSearch) so every security event is traceable.

Launch + iterate like Cloudflare does

  1. Week 0 – Mirror DNS onto Cloudflare, enable proxy (orange-cloud), and import baseline security policies.
  2. Week 1 – Roll out Workers-based security adapters in shadow mode, feeding analytics only.
  3. Week 2 – Turn on caching + zero-trust enforcement, then graduate DB/compute orchestration flows.
  4. Continuous – Run post-incident reviews with diagrams-as-code (Mermaid, Excalidraw) stored next to the Worker repo so architecture always has a single source of truth.

What’s next

  • Prototype a “Nexarq Edge Starter” repo that bundles these Workers, KV namespaces, and Terraform definitions.
  • Extend reference diagrams with environment-specific overlays (prod, staging, regulated) so compliance teams can self-serve context.
  • Pair with product teams to experiment with Workers AI or Vectorize-backed personalization while keeping the same security guardrails.

With Cloudflare’s programmable edge as our canvas and Nexarq’s emphasis on trustworthy minimalism, every proxied application can evolve from a legacy deployment to a resilient, insight-rich platform.