What being blocked looks like
The agent will tell you when it hits a wall, usually while it runs the job by hand for the first time. You might also see it as:- A captcha that never clears, no matter how many times the page reloads.
- A 403 or “access denied” response.
- A page that loads but comes back empty, or holds nothing but a “checking your browser” message.
- A warning about unusual traffic from your network.
Fix one: get a developer token
Try this first. It works better, costs less, and breaks less often. Most big sites offer a developer token, sometimes called an API key or app credentials. The site builds it for exactly this purpose: letting a program read data without pretending to be a person in a browser. A token beats fighting the block on every count:- Bot protection does not apply to it, because you are no longer sneaking in.
- It runs in a fraction of the time, since your automation skips loading a whole web page.
- It keeps working when the site redesigns, because you read clean data instead of scraping the layout.
Example: Reddit
Say you want a daily digest of a subreddit. The agent opens Reddit from your workspace, and Reddit blocks it, because it sees automated traffic from a data center. Reddit also hands out developer credentials to anyone with an account. Go to reddit.com/prefs/apps, create an app, and Reddit gives you a client ID and a secret. Paste both into the chat:Reddit is blocking you. Here are my developer credentials. Client ID:Now the agent reads Reddit through the front door. No block, no captcha, and the digest runs every morning without anyone touching it. The same move works on most sites worth automating. GitHub, Stripe, Linear, Notion, and Airtable all hand out tokens from their settings pages.xxxxxxxxSecret:yyyyyyyy
Fix two: ask us for a managed proxy
Some sites have no developer token, and some block you anyway. That is when the IP address itself is the problem. We can put your workspace behind a managed proxy. Your requests then leave from a residential IP, which looks like a normal home internet connection instead of a data center, and most bot protection lets that traffic through. Email [email protected] and tell us which site you are trying to reach. A managed proxy costs extra, so we will walk you through the pricing before we turn anything on.Ask about this only after you have checked for a developer token. A token is
free, faster, and steadier. A managed proxy is the answer when no token exists,
not the first thing to try.
Which one do I need?
1
Look for a developer token
Search the site’s settings for “API”, “developer”, or “apps”. If you find
one, take it. You are done.
2
Ask the agent to check
Not sure whether a site has one? Ask. The agent reads the site’s own
documentation and tells you where to click.
Does this site have an API token I can get you? Where do I find it?
3
Email support if there is no token
No token and still blocked? Write to [email protected] about a managed
proxy.