GuidesConnecting Cloudflare R2 Image Storage

Overview: Image Storage & Hosting

To include images within your notebooks and blog posts, they must be embedded using direct web URLs (links). Rather than storing image files directly on the MindDump application server—which helps protect system performance and conserves server disk space—all image assets are hosted using external cloud storage.

Why Cloudflare R2?

We have built a native integration with Cloudflare R2 Storage to make uploading images and generating Markdown links as seamless as possible. Cloudflare offers an exceptionally generous free usage tier designed to easily accommodate individual blogging and note-taking needs:

  • 10 GB of total stored image data per month
  • 10 Million monthly image views/reads
  • £0.00 egress / bandwidth fees

A Note on Payment Details: During the Cloudflare setup process, you will be asked to enter a debit or credit card. This is a standard requirement by Cloudflare to verify your account and cover any potential usage that exceeds the free tier. Unless your posts experience massive viral traffic, standard daily usage will remain well within the free limits and will not incur any charges.

Alternative Storage Options

While our integrated workflow uses Cloudflare, you are not required to use Cloudflare R2. If you already store images elsewhere (such as GitHub, a custom web host, or another cloud provider), you can use any service that allows you to generate direct, publicly accessible URLs for your image files.

Getting Started

The following instructions walk you step-by-step through setting up your free Cloudflare account, provisioning your storage bucket, and retrieving the necessary API credentials to connect your image upload tool.

Create a Cloudflare Free Account

Initial R2 Account Activation & Bucket Provisioning

Sub-section 3.0.1: Enabling Cloudflare R2 Storage

  1. Log in to the Cloudflare Dashboard.
  2. In the primary left-hand menu, click Storage & databases $\rightarrow$ R2 Object Storage.
  3. On the overview screen, click the blue button labelled Add R2 subscription to my account.
  4. Confirm your billing/payment details if prompted.
    • Note: Cloudflare provides a standard monthly free tier (10 GB storage, 1M write operations, 10M read operations, £0 egress fees). You will only incur charges if your usage exceeds these limits.
  5. Review the subscription summary ($0.00 due today) and click Submit / Confirm.

Sub-section 3.0.2: Creating an R2 Storage Bucket

  1. Once activated, return to R2 Object Storage $\rightarrow$ Overview.
  2. Click the blue Create Bucket button near the top of the page.
  3. Enter a Bucket Name following standard naming conventions:
    • Must contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens (e.g. blog-images).
    • Avoid spaces or special characters.
  4. Select the Location Hint (default is set to Automatic, which intelligently routes storage nearest to your traffic).
  5. Click Create Bucket.

Connecting a custom subdomain allows your uploaded images to serve clean URLs (e.g.[https://img.minddump.uk/photo.jpg](https://img.minddump.uk/photo.jpg)) instead of generic cloud storage links.

  1. Click on your newly created bucket from the R2 dashboard.
  2. Select the Settings tab.
  3. Scroll down to the Custom Domains section and click Connect Domain.
  4. Enter your desired subdomain (e.g. img.minddump.uk).
  5. Click Continue. Cloudflare will automatically configure the required DNS CNAME record for your account.
  6. Click Connect Domain to finalise the binding.
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