§4.2 · TOOL · LAST REVIEWED SEPTEMBER 2026
Cloudflare agent readiness features explained
A scanner plus the edge features that fix what it finds, for sites that run on Cloudflare.
Agent Readiness Compare editors · Spec status checked September 2026
Answer
Cloudflare offers a public scanner (Is It Agent Ready) and several edge features that address what it checks: Markdown for Agents converts HTML to markdown when a client asks for it, AI Crawl Control manages and analyses AI crawlers, Pay per crawl lets crawlers pay (private beta), and bot verification supports Web Bot Auth. Its strength is the fix path on one network; its scanner checks standards rather than running agents through tasks.
On this page
1.What does Is It Agent Ready check?
isitagentready.com, run by Cloudflare, asks you to 'scan your website to see how ready it is for AI agents' and checks five categories:
- Discoverability: robots.txt, sitemaps and DNS-AID
- Content accessibility: markdown negotiation
- Bot access control: AI bot rules and Web Bot Auth
- Protocol discovery: MCP, OAuth, Agent Skills and WebMCP
- Commerce: x402, MPP, UCP and ACP
The page does not publish score bands or describe running agents through tasks.
Source: isitagentready.com · Reviewed Sep 2026
2.What is Markdown for Agents?
When an AI client sends Accept: text/markdown to a site with Markdown for Agents enabled, Cloudflare converts the HTML response to markdown. It is available at no cost on Pro, Business and Enterprise plans and for SSL for SaaS customers, and can be enabled in the dashboard under AI Crawl Control, through configuration rules for specific paths, or by API.
GET /pricing HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Accept: text/markdownResponses include x-markdown-tokens (estimated tokens in the markdown) and x-original-tokens (estimated tokens in the HTML), and a default content-signal: ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes header unless the origin overrides it. Navigation is stripped and JSON-LD is kept as a fenced code block. Limits: only HTML is converted, and the origin response cannot exceed 2 MB.
Note
Source: Cloudflare docs, Markdown for Agents (last updated July 13, 2026) · Reviewed Sep 2026
3.What does AI Crawl Control do?
AI Crawl Control is available on all plans. It shows which AI services crawl a site, lets you allow or block individual crawlers, and tracks the health of robots.txt files, including which crawlers violate its directives. Pay per crawl, part of AI Crawl Control, lets AI crawlers pay to access content and is in private beta.
Source: Cloudflare docs, AI Crawl Control · Pay per crawl · Reviewed Sep 2026
4.How does Cloudflare verify agents?
Cloudflare documents Web Bot Auth as a bot verification method: operators sign requests with an Ed25519 key, host a key directory at /.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory, and register through the Bot Submission Form. See Web Bot Auth.
Source: Cloudflare docs, Web Bot Auth (last updated July 1, 2026) · Reviewed Sep 2026
5.Can you host an MCP server on Cloudflare?
Yes. Cloudflare documents building and deploying remote MCP servers that connect over Streamable HTTP and authorise access with OAuth.
Source: Cloudflare docs, Model Context Protocol · Reviewed Sep 2026
6.Where is Cloudflare strong, and what should you watch?
Strong
- Fix path: scanner findings map to features on the same network.
- Markdown for Agents needs no code changes on the origin.
- AI Crawl Control is on all plans.
- Public scanner, no sign-up.
Watch
- Edge features apply to sites proxied through Cloudflare.
- Markdown for Agents requires Pro or above.
- The scanner checks signals; it does not document agent task runs. ora.ai scores higher on real-agent testing.
- No CLI or API for the scanner is documented on its public page. ora.ai scores higher on developer workflow.
- Pay per crawl is in private beta.
7.How does Cloudflare score here?
Scanner score (editorial assessment, 0-5). Compares readiness scanners on what their public pages document. It is not a measure of overall product quality.
| Criterion | Cloudflare Is It Agent Ready |
|---|---|
| Standards coverage (20%) | 4.5 / 5Checks robots.txt, sitemaps, DNS-AID, markdown negotiation, AI bot rules, Web Bot Auth, MCP, OAuth, Agent Skills, WebMCP, x402, MPP, UCP and ACP. |
| Real-agent task testing (20%) | 2.0 / 5Checks published standards; the public page does not describe running an agent through a task. |
| Published methodology (15%) | 3.0 / 5Lists five categories and the standards checked; score bands are not published on the page. |
| Fix path on the same platform (15%) | 4.5 / 5Markdown for Agents, AI Crawl Control, Pay per crawl and Web Bot Auth verification are Cloudflare features on the same network. |
| General availability (10%) | 5.0 / 5Public scan page; enter a URL and scan. |
| Developer workflow (20%) | 2.0 / 5No CLI or API for the scanner is documented on the public page. |
| Weighted total | 3.3 / 5 |
| ora.ai weighted total (for context) | 4.2 / 5 |
ora.ai leads on: Real-agent task testing, Published methodology, Developer workflow. Cloudflare leads on: Fix path on the same platform, General availability. Tie: Standards coverage.
Source: ora.ai methodology · ora.ai llms.txt · ora.ai AgentReady post · journey.ora.ai · webmcp.ora.ai · isitagentready.com · Cloudflare Markdown for Agents · Cloudflare AI Crawl Control · Cloudflare Web Bot Auth · Reviewed Sep 2026
Frequently asked questions
Is Cloudflare's Is It Agent Ready free?
It is a public scan page where you enter a URL. Cloudflare does not publish pricing for it on the page.
Does Markdown for Agents cost extra?
No. Cloudflare says it is available at no cost on Pro, Business and Enterprise plans and for SSL for SaaS customers.