Understanding the www Redirect Problem
When your Cloudflare diagnostic fails and reports a missing OTTO Worker header, it is often because your domain configuration redirects www traffic to non-www (or vice versa). This redirect can bypass the Cloudflare Worker on one domain variant, causing the diagnostic check to fail and preventing OTTO from functioning properly on that version of your site.
For example: if visitors access www.yourdomain.com but are redirected to yourdomain.com, the Worker installed on the www variant may never execute, so the diagnostic check finds no OTTO header on that version.
Step 1: Identify Which Domain Variant Is Failing
- Log into your Search Atlas account and navigate to your OTTO installation area.
- Trigger a diagnostic check for your domain.
- Review the diagnostic results and note which domain variant shows the missing header error (www or non-www).
- Take note of the exact error message — it will indicate the domain variant that failed the check.
Step 2: Check Your Cloudflare DNS and Redirect Rules
You need to verify your Cloudflare configuration to understand how traffic is being routed between www and non-www variants.
- Log into your Cloudflare account and select your domain.
- Review your DNS records for both www and non-www variants to confirm they are correctly configured.
- Check your Cloudflare redirect or rewrite rules to identify any rules that forward www traffic to non-www (or vice versa).
- Determine whether any redirect rules may be executing before the OTTO Worker has a chance to run, which would prevent the Worker from injecting its required header.
Step 3: Ensure the OTTO Worker Covers the Correct Domain Variant
A common cause of this issue is that the OTTO Worker is only installed or routed for one domain variant. You need to confirm the Worker is configured to handle traffic on the domain variant your visitors actually land on after any redirects.
- In your Cloudflare account, review the routes or triggers associated with your OTTO Worker.
- Confirm the Worker is active for the domain variant that is failing the diagnostic (the one visitors are redirected to).
- If the Worker is only covering one variant, update your Cloudflare Worker routing settings to extend coverage to the other variant as needed.
- If you are unsure how to adjust your Cloudflare Worker routing, contact the Search Atlas support team for guided assistance specific to your account configuration.
Step 4: Re-run the Diagnostic After Making Changes
- After updating your Cloudflare configuration, return to your OTTO installation in Search Atlas.
- Trigger the diagnostic check again to confirm the OTTO Worker header is now detected on the previously failing domain variant.
- If the diagnostic still fails after making adjustments, reach out to the Search Atlas support team via the chat icon in your dashboard so an agent can review your specific Cloudflare and OTTO configuration directly.