🌐 Cloudflare DDNS Updater

A lightweight Python script to automatically update your Cloudflare A records (like @, www, dev, etc.) whenever your public IP changes.

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🏠 Why Use This?

If you're self-hosting services at home — like a web server, media server (Plex, Jellyfin), or remote access tool — and your ISP changes your IP from time to time, this tool keeps your domain pointed to the right IP address automatically.

It's perfect for:

• Home labs with dynamic or semi-static IPs
• Personal websites or portfolios hosted from home
• Remote access to Raspberry Pi, NAS, Docker stacks, or VMs
• Anyone who doesn’t want to manually update DNS records on every IP change

All you need is:

• A domain managed on Cloudflare
• A public IP address (dynamic or static)
• Python installed on your server or machine

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⚙️ Features

✅ Detects IP changes
✅ Updates A records only if needed
✅ Works with multiple domains (zones)
✅ Auto TTL
✅ Supports proxied (orange cloud)
✅ Environment-based token (no hardcoded secrets)
✅ Select specific subdomains to update
✅ Optionally skip creating records if they don’t exist

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/ashfaqahmed/cloudflare-ddns-updater
cd cloudflare-ddns-updater

2. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Set up your .env file

Create a .env file in the root folder:

CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN=your_cloudflare_api_token_here

🔐 Create a token from https://dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens with:

• Zone: Read
• DNS: Edit

4. Configure subdomains and record creation behavior

In update_dns.py, customize the top section:

SUBDOMAINS_TO_UPDATE = ['@']  # List of subdomains (e.g., ['@', 'www', 'dev'])
CREATE_IF_MISSING = False     # Set to True to auto-create records if not found

• Use '@' to update the root domain (e.g., example.com)
• Add any subdomain strings to update additional A records
• By default, the script will not create records — only update existing ones

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🧪 Run the Script

python update_dns.py

• Only updates DNS records if your public IP has changed
• Saves the last known IP in last_ip.txt locally

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🕒 Automate with Cron (Linux/macOS)

To run the script automatically every 30 minutes:

crontab -e

Add this line:

*/30 * * * * /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/update_dns.py >> /path/to/ddns.log 2>&1

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📁 Project Structure

cloudflare-ddns-updater/
├── update_dns.py         # Main script
├── .env                  # API token (not committed)
├── .gitignore            # Prevents secret files from being pushed
├── requirements.txt      # Python dependencies
└── README.md             # This file

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✅ Example .env File

CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN=sk_test_your_cloudflare_api_token_here

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🛡 License

MIT License

Free to use, modify, and share. Just don’t publish your own API tokens 😉

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💬 Feedback / Contributions

Pull requests and issues are welcome!
If you find this useful, drop a star ⭐ or share it with other homelabbers!

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☕ Support My Work

If this tool saved you time or effort, consider buying me a coffee.
Your support helps me keep building and maintaining open-source projects like this!

You can either scan the QR code below or click the link to tip me:

👉 buymeacoffee.com/ashfaqueali