This pragmatic short guide through CSF diagnostics is oriented towards the questions of everyday clinical practice and contains expert recommendations for the selection of examinations for specific clinical questions, as well as a technical section with information on pre-analytics and the significance of the various procedures. The guidelines were developed as an expert consensus of scientists and clinicians and are intended to be understood as a rational basis for high-quality and cost-efficient CSF diagnostics. The method catalogue builds a bridge from the clinician to the laboratory physician and provides information on sample preparation, laboratory chemical procedures, and their significance in clinical diagnostics.