Get started with Bot Fight Mode
Bot Fight Mode is a simple, free product that helps detect and mitigate bot traffic on your domain. When enabled, the product:
- Identifies traffic matching patterns of known bots
- Issues computationally expensive challenges in response to these bots
- Notifies Bandwidth Alliance partners (if applicable) to disable bots
Enable Bot Fight Mode
To start using Bot Fight Mode:
- Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard and select your account and domain.
- Go to Security > Bots.
- For Bot Fight Mode, select On.
Disable Bot Fight Mode
If you find that Bot Fight Mode is causing problems with your application traffic, you may want to disable it.
To disable Bot Fight Mode:
- Log in to the Cloudflare dashboard and select your account and domain.
- Go to Security > Bots.
- For Bot Fight Mode, select Off.
Visibility
You can see bot-related actions by going to Security > Events. Any requests challenged by this product will be labeled Bot Fight Mode in the Service field. This allows you to observe, analyze, and follow trends in your bot traffic over time.
Limitations
You cannot bypass or skip Bot Fight Mode using the Skip action in WAF custom rules or using Page Rules (legacy). Skip, Bypass, and Allow actions apply to rules or rulesets running on the Ruleset Engine. While Super Bot Fight Mode rules are implemented in the Ruleset Engine, Bot Fight Mode checks are not. This is why you can skip Super Bot Fight Mode, but not Bot Fight Mode. If you need to skip Bot Fight Mode, consider using Super Bot Fight Mode.
Bot Fight Mode can still trigger if you have IP Access rules, but it cannot trigger if an IP Access rule matches the request. For example, the IP Access rule matches the connecting IP.