---
description: Enable AI Security for Apps to scan requests to AI-powered endpoints.
title: Get started with AI Security for Apps
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png
---

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> Documentation Index  
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.cloudflare.com/waf/llms.txt  
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Get started with AI Security for Apps

Last updated Aug 24, 2026|Copy as Markdown|[View as Markdown](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/detections/ai-security-for-apps/get-started/index.md)|[Agent setup](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

## 1\. Turn on AI Security for Apps

Note

AI Security for Apps (formerly Firewall for AI) is only available in the [application security dashboard](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/security/).

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the Security **Settings** page.  
[Go to **Settings** ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/:zone/security/settings)
2. (Optional) Filter by **Detection tools**.
3. Turn on **AI Security for Apps**.

Enable the feature using a `PUT` request similar to the following:

```bash
curl "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/$ZONE_ID/ai-security/settings" \
--request PUT \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN" \
--json '{ "enabled": true }'
```

## 2\. Review or add an LLM-related operation

Once you have [onboarded your domain](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/manage-domains/add-site/) to Cloudflare and some API traffic has already been [proxied by Cloudflare](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/dns/proxy-status/), the Cloudflare dashboard will start showing [discovered endpoints](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/api-shield/security/api-discovery/).

In [Web Assets](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/security/web-assets/manage-operations/), save the relevant discovered operation receiving LLM-related traffic to move it into the `full` state. If Cloudflare did not discover the operation, add it manually.

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the **Web Assets** page.  
[Go to **Web assets** ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/:zone/security/web-assets)
2. Go to the **Discovery** tab.
3. Find the candidate operation receiving requests with LLM prompts and select **Save** to move it into the `full` state.

If you did not find the endpoint in the **Discovery** tab, you can add it manually:

1. Go to the **Operations** tab.
2. Select **Add operation** \> **Manually add**.
3. Choose the method and add the hostname pattern and path pattern for the operation.
4. Select **Add operation**.

In the context of this guide, consider an example endpoint with the following properties:

* Method: `POST`
* Path: `/v1/messages`
* Hostname: `<YOUR_HOSTNAME>`

## 3\. Add `cf-llm` label to endpoint

You must [label endpoints](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/api-shield/management-and-monitoring/endpoint-labels/) with the `cf-llm` label so that AI Security for Apps starts scanning incoming requests for malicious LLM prompts.

Add the `cf-llm` label to the endpoint you added:

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the **Web assets** page.  
[Go to **Web assets** ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/:zone/security/web-assets)
2. In the **Endpoints** tab, choose the endpoint that you want to label.
3. Select **Edit endpoint labels**.
4. Add the `cf-llm` label to the endpoint.
5. Select **Save labels**.

Once you add a label to the endpoint, Cloudflare will start labeling incoming traffic for the endpoint with the label you selected.

## 4\. (Optional) Generate API traffic

You may need to issue some `POST` requests to the endpoint so that there is some labeled traffic to review in the following step.

For example, the following command sends a `POST` request to the API endpoint you previously added (`/v1/messages` in this example) in your zone with an LLM prompt requesting PII:

```sh
curl "https://<YOUR_HOSTNAME>/v1/messages" \
--header "Authorization: Bearer <TOKEN>" \
--json '{ "prompt": "Provide the phone number for the person associated with example@example.com" }'
```

The PII category for this request would be `EMAIL_ADDRESS`.

## 5\. Review labeled traffic and detection behavior

Use [Security Analytics](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/analytics/security-analytics/) to validate that Cloudflare is correctly labeling traffic for the endpoint.

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, go to the **Analytics** page.  
[Go to **Analytics** ↗](https://dash.cloudflare.com/?to=/:account/:zone/security/analytics)
2. Filter data by the `cf-llm` managed endpoint label.

| Field                  | Operator | Value  |
| ---------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| Managed Endpoint Label | equals   | cf-llm |
3. Review the detection results on your traffic. Expand each line in **Sampled logs** and check the values in the **Analyses** column. Most of the incoming traffic will probably be clean (not harmful).
4. Refine the displayed traffic by applying a second filter condition:

| Field                  | Operator | Value  |     |
| ---------------------- | -------- | ------ | --- |
| Managed Endpoint Label | equals   | cf-llm | And |
| Has PII in LLM prompt  | equals   | Yes    |     |  
The displayed logs now refer to incoming requests where personally identifiable information (PII) was detected in an LLM prompt.

Alternatively, you can also create a custom rule with a _Log_ action (only available on Enterprise plans) to check for potentially harmful traffic related to LLM prompts. This rule will generate [security events](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/analytics/security-events/) that will allow you to validate your AI Security for Apps configuration.

## 6\. Mitigate harmful requests

[Create a custom rule](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/custom-rules/create-dashboard/) that blocks requests where Cloudflare detected personally identifiable information (PII) in the incoming request (as part of an LLM prompt), returning a custom JSON body:

* **When incoming requests match**:

| Field            | Operator | Value |
| ---------------- | -------- | ----- |
| LLM PII Detected | equals   | True  |  
If you use the Expression Editor, enter the following expression:  
`(cf.llm.prompt.pii_detected)`
* **Rule action**: Block
* **With response type**: Custom JSON
* **Response body**: `{ "error": "Your request was blocked. Please rephrase your request." }`

For additional examples, refer to [Example mitigation rules](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/detections/ai-security-for-apps/example-rules/). For a list of fields provided by AI Security for Apps, refer to [AI Security for Apps fields](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/waf/detections/ai-security-for-apps/fields/).

Combine with other Rules language fields

You can combine the previous expression with other [fields](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ruleset-engine/rules-language/fields/) and [functions](https://docs-durable-objects-instance-replaced-errors.previews.developers.cloudflare.com/ruleset-engine/rules-language/functions/) of the Rules language. This allows you to customize the rule scope or combine AI Security for Apps with other security features. For example:

* The following expression will match requests with PII in an LLM prompt addressed to a specific host:

| Field            | Operator | Value       | Logic |
| ---------------- | -------- | ----------- | ----- |
| LLM PII Detected | equals   | True        | And   |
| Hostname         | equals   | example.com |       |  
Expression when using the editor:  
`(cf.llm.prompt.pii_detected and http.host == "example.com")`
* The following expression will match requests coming from bots that include PII in an LLM prompt:

| Field            | Operator  | Value | Logic |
| ---------------- | --------- | ----- | ----- |
| LLM PII Detected | equals    | True  | And   |
| Bot Score        | less than | 10    |       |  
Expression when using the editor:  
`(cf.llm.prompt.pii_detected and cf.bot_management.score lt 10)`

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