---
description: Control how traffic is distributed across pools and origins.
title: Traffic steering
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png
---

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# Traffic steering

Last updated Aug 24, 2026|Copy as Markdown|[View as Markdown](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/load-balancing/understand-basics/traffic-steering/index.md)|[Agent setup](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

When requests come to your load balancer, it distributes them across your pools and endpoints according to three factors:

1. [Pool and endpoint health](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/load-balancing/understand-basics/health-details/): Traffic decisions start with which pools and endpoints are available and should receive traffic.
2. [Global traffic steering](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/load-balancing/understand-basics/traffic-steering/steering-policies/): Policies set on your [load balancer](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/load-balancing/load-balancers/) that route traffic to attached and available pools.
3. [Local traffic steering](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/load-balancing/understand-basics/traffic-steering/origin-level-steering/): These are policies set on each [pool](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/load-balancing/pools/) that route traffic to available endpoints within the pool.

When a pool or endpoint becomes unhealthy, your load balancer and pools redistribute traffic according to these same policies.

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