Inspect SPF Record

GET/zones/{zone_id}/email/auth/spf/inspect

Inspects a specific SPF TXT record and returns a parsed tree structure in the spflimit-worker format.

The record ID must be provided via the id query parameter.

Returns a recursive tree showing:

Parsed components with their qualifiers and types
Nested includes recursively resolved within components
Per-component and total lookup counts
Detailed error information with context

Security

API Token

The preferred authorization scheme for interacting with the Cloudflare API. Create a token.

Example:Authorization: Bearer Sn3lZJTBX6kkg7OdcBUAxOO963GEIyGQqnFTOFYY

API Email + API Key

The previous authorization scheme for interacting with the Cloudflare API, used in conjunction with a Global API key.

Example:X-Auth-Email: user@example.com

The previous authorization scheme for interacting with the Cloudflare API. When possible, use API tokens instead of Global API keys.

Example:X-Auth-Key: 144c9defac04969c7bfad8efaa8ea194

Path ParametersExpand Collapse

zone_id: string

Identifier.

maxLength32

Query ParametersExpand Collapse

id: string

DNS record ID (rec_tag) to inspect

ReturnsExpand Collapse

errors: array of object { code, message, documentation_url, source }

code: number

minimum1000

message: string

documentation_url: optional string

source: optional object { pointer }

pointer: optional string

messages: array of object { code, message, documentation_url, source }

code: number

minimum1000

message: string

documentation_url: optional string

source: optional object { pointer }

pointer: optional string

success: true

Whether the API call was successful.

result: optional object { components, domain, record, 2 more }

Recursive SPF inspection tree

components: array of unknown

Parsed SPF components (mechanisms)

domain: string

Domain being inspected

record: string

Raw SPF record content

total_lookups: number

Total number of DNS lookups performed across all includes

errors: optional array of object { code, domain, message, details }

All errors encountered during inspection, collected from the entire tree. This includes errors from nested includes at any depth, providing a quick overview of all issues without needing to traverse the nested structure. Each error includes a domain field to identify where it occurred. Empty array if no errors (omitted from JSON when empty).

code: string

Error code. Known values:

lookup_failed — DNS TXT lookup failed
spf_not_found — no SPF record found
invalid_spf — record does not start with v=spf1
invalid_domain — PSL validation failed
loop_detected — include/redirect cycle detected
invalid_mechanism — unrecognised or malformed mechanism
resource_limit_exceeded — internal resource protection limits exceeded (recursion depth or query budget)
max_lookups — RFC 7208 10-lookup limit exceeded

domain: string

Domain where the error occurred

message: string

Human-readable error message

details: optional string

Additional error-specific details (optional).

For invalid_domain errors: the invalid domain string
For invalid_mechanism errors: the invalid mechanism text (e.g., “invalidmech123”)
For loop_detected errors: the domain that caused the loop
For other error types: not present

Inspect SPF Record

curl https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/$ZONE_ID/email/auth/spf/inspect \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN"

{
  "errors": [
    {
      "code": 1000,
      "message": "message",
      "documentation_url": "documentation_url",
      "source": {
        "pointer": "pointer"
      }
    }
  ],
  "messages": [
    {
      "code": 1000,
      "message": "message",
      "documentation_url": "documentation_url",
      "source": {
        "pointer": "pointer"
      }
    }
  ],
  "success": true,
  "result": {
    "components": [
      {}
    ],
    "domain": "example.com",
    "record": "v=spf1 ip4:203.0.113.1 include:spf.example.com -all",
    "total_lookups": 2,
    "errors": [
      {
        "code": "max_lookups",
        "domain": "example.com",
        "message": "RFC 7208 10-lookup limit exceeded",
        "details": "invalid"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Returns Examples

{
  "errors": [
    {
      "code": 1000,
      "message": "message",
      "documentation_url": "documentation_url",
      "source": {
        "pointer": "pointer"
      }
    }
  ],
  "messages": [
    {
      "code": 1000,
      "message": "message",
      "documentation_url": "documentation_url",
      "source": {
        "pointer": "pointer"
      }
    }
  ],
  "success": true,
  "result": {
    "components": [
      {}
    ],
    "domain": "example.com",
    "record": "v=spf1 ip4:203.0.113.1 include:spf.example.com -all",
    "total_lookups": 2,
    "errors": [
      {
        "code": "max_lookups",
        "domain": "example.com",
        "message": "RFC 7208 10-lookup limit exceeded",
        "details": "invalid"
      }
    ]
  }
}