Cloudflare Free Tier Guard

Overview

Apply a free-tier-first design review before making Cloudflare changes. Favor architectures that keep Workers thin, avoid unnecessary paid products, and make request, storage, and egress costs explicit.

Quick Start

1. Read references/free-tier-checklist.md.
2. If working in this repository's server/ directory, read references/launcherg-server-stack.md.
3. Identify which Cloudflare primitives are involved: Workers, D1, R2, KV, Assets, Queues, Durable Objects, Cron, or custom domains.
4. State the expected hot path in one sentence: request source, Worker logic, storage access, response path.
5. Prefer the cheapest primitive that satisfies the requirement, then explain why.

Workflow

1. Inventory the cost surface

• Count likely request paths.
• Separate metadata reads/writes from binary transfer.
• Note whether traffic is public, authenticated, bursty, or background.
• Call out which operations hit D1, R2, or Worker CPU.

2. Choose the lowest-cost architecture

• Prefer: static assets via Assets/Pages, metadata in D1, blobs in R2, direct upload/download where possible.
• Avoid adding Durable Objects, Queues, Cron, or extra Workers unless the requirement needs coordination, background execution, or fan-out.
• Keep auth stateless when possible. Signed cookies or signed tokens are cheaper than session tables.
• Keep the Worker off the binary data path unless authorization or transformation is required.

3. Apply free-tier techniques

• Deduplicate uploads before generating storage writes.
• Batch D1 writes and chunk large lookups.
• Return only required columns.
• Put TTLs on signed URLs and session cookies.
• Cache safe reads aggressively.
• Move heavy transforms to the client or build step.
• Avoid polling loops and worker-to-worker hops.

4. Explicitly review risk before coding

Before finalizing a design or patch, answer these questions:

• Does this increase request count on every user action?
• Does this push binary payloads through the Worker unnecessarily?
• Does this add a paid Cloudflare product without proving it is needed?
• Can the same behavior be achieved with Assets, D1, R2, cache headers, or client-side work?
• What is the likely free-tier bottleneck first: request count, CPU, D1 operations, R2 storage, or egress?

If the change is likely to exceed free-tier comfort, say so plainly and propose a cheaper alternative.

Output Requirements

When this skill is used, include a short cost note in the answer:

• Architecture choice
• Main free-tier pressure points
• Concrete mitigations applied
• Any remaining unknowns that need measurement

References

• references/free-tier-checklist.md
• references/launcherg-server-stack.md