Issue a wildcard TLS certificate with acme.sh using a DNS-01 API provider (Cloudflare as the worked example), and understand how unattended renewal happens via the cron job the acme.sh installer sets up.
domain: github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh · 7 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
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Documented steps
Create a Cloudflare API Token with the 'Zone > DNS > Edit' permission scoped to your zone(s): User Token at https://dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens, or an Account-owned Token via Cloudflare Dashboard -> Manage Account -> Account API Tokens.
Export credentials for the token method: export CF_Token="<your-token>" ; export CF_Account_ID="<account-id>" (use CF_Zone_ID instead of CF_Account_ID if issuing for only a single Cloudflare zone).
Issue the apex + wildcard cert via the dns_cf DNS hook: acme.sh --issue --dns dns_cf -d example.com -d '*.example.com'
(Legacy, not recommended by the wiki) Global API Key method: export CF_Key="<global-api-key>" ; export CF_Email="you@example.com" then run the same --issue --dns dns_cf command.
Install/deploy the issued cert with a reload command: acme.sh --install-cert -d example.com --fullchain-file /path/fullchain.pem --key-file /path/key.pem --reloadcmd "service nginx force-reload"
No manual renewal step is needed: the CF_Token/CF_Account_ID (or CF_Key/CF_Email) used at issuance are saved into ~/.acme.sh/account.conf and reused automatically when the installer's daily cron job runs acme.sh --cron.
Official docs: https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/dnsapi, https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh/wiki/How-to-issue-a-cert, https://github.com/acmesh-official/acme.sh
Known gotchas
The dnsapi wiki lists 3 Cloudflare credential methods: User Token (CF_Token + CF_Zone_ID for one zone), Account-owned Token (CF_Token + CF_Account_ID for multiple zones in one account), or the legacy Global API Key (CF_Key + CF_Email), which the wiki explicitly marks 'Not recommended' since leaking it compromises the whole Cloudflare account.
Wildcard certs (*.example.com) can only be validated via DNS-01 — webroot, standalone, apache, and nginx modes cannot issue wildcard certs, only --dns modes can.
For domains spanning multiple different Cloudflare accounts, you must run --issue separately per account/domain group with that account's own CF_Token/CF_Account_ID exported each time.
The renewal cron reuses saved env vars from ~/.acme.sh/account.conf, so CF_Token does NOT need to stay exported in your interactive shell for unattended renewals to keep working.
Certs still follow the general 30-day (or earlier, ARI-driven RFC 9773) renewal cadence described in the main README — dns_cf issuance doesn't change that schedule, only how the challenge is solved.
DNS manual mode (acme.sh --issue --dns, with no provider name) is different from DNS API mode (--dns dns_cf): manual mode cannot auto-renew and requires re-adding a TXT record by hand every time; only API-driven modes like dns_cf support unattended cron renewal.
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