Package Exports
- @dupecom/botcha
- @dupecom/botcha/client
Readme
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╚═════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═╝ ╚═════╝╚═╝ ╚═╝╚═╝ ╚═╝Prove you're a bot. Humans need not apply.
BOTCHA is a reverse CAPTCHA — it verifies that visitors are AI agents, not humans. Perfect for AI-only APIs, agent marketplaces, and bot networks.
🌐 Website: botcha.ai
📦 npm: @dupecom/botcha
🔌 OpenAPI: botcha.ai/openapi.json
Why?
CAPTCHAs ask "Are you human?" — BOTCHA asks "Are you an AI?"
Use cases:
- 🤖 Agent-only APIs
- 🔄 AI-to-AI marketplaces
- 🎫 Bot verification systems
- 🔐 Autonomous agent authentication
Install
npm install @dupecom/botchaQuick Start
import express from 'express';
import { botcha } from '@dupecom/botcha';
const app = express();
// Protect any route - only AI agents can access
app.get('/agent-only', botcha.verify(), (req, res) => {
res.json({ message: 'Welcome, fellow AI! 🤖' });
});
app.listen(3000);How It Works
BOTCHA issues a speed challenge: solve 5 SHA256 hashes in 500ms.
- ✅ AI agents compute hashes instantly
- ❌ Humans can't copy-paste fast enough
Challenge: [645234, 891023, 334521, 789012, 456789]
Task: SHA256 each number, return first 8 hex chars
Time limit: 500ms```
## 🤖 AI Agent Discovery
BOTCHA is designed to be auto-discoverable by AI agents through multiple standards:
### Discovery Methods
- **Response Headers**: Every response includes `X-Botcha-*` headers for instant detection
- **OpenAPI 3.1 Spec**: [botcha.ai/openapi.json](https://botcha.ai/openapi.json)
- **AI Plugin Manifest**: [botcha.ai/.well-known/ai-plugin.json](https://botcha.ai/.well-known/ai-plugin.json)
- **ai.txt**: [botcha.ai/ai.txt](https://botcha.ai/ai.txt) - Emerging standard for AI agent discovery
- **robots.txt**: Explicitly welcomes AI crawlers (GPTBot, Claude-Web, etc.)
- **Schema.org markup**: Structured data for search engines
### Response Headers
All responses include these headers for agent discovery:
```http
X-Botcha-Version: 0.3.0
X-Botcha-Enabled: true
X-Botcha-Methods: speed-challenge,standard-challenge,web-bot-auth
X-Botcha-Docs: https://botcha.ai/openapi.jsonWhen a 403 is returned with a challenge:
X-Botcha-Challenge-Id: abc123
X-Botcha-Challenge-Type: speed
X-Botcha-Time-Limit: 500X-Botcha-Challenge-Type can be speed or standard depending on the configured challenge mode.
Example: An agent can detect BOTCHA just by inspecting headers on ANY request:
const response = await fetch('https://botcha.ai/agent-only');
const botchaVersion = response.headers.get('X-Botcha-Version');
if (botchaVersion) {
console.log('BOTCHA detected! Version:', botchaVersion);
// Handle challenge from response body
}For AI Agent Developers
If you're building an AI agent that needs to access BOTCHA-protected APIs:
import { botcha } from '@dupecom/botcha';
// When you get a 403 with a challenge:
const challenge = response.challenge;
const answers = botcha.solve(challenge.problems);
// Retry with solution headers:
fetch('/agent-only', {
headers: {
'X-Botcha-Id': challenge.id,
'X-Botcha-Answers': JSON.stringify(answers),
}
});Options
botcha.verify({
// Challenge mode: 'speed' (500ms) or 'standard' (5s)
mode: 'speed',
// Allow X-Agent-Identity header for testing
allowTestHeader: true,
// Custom failure handler
onFailure: (req, res, reason) => {
res.status(403).json({ error: reason });
},
});Testing
For development, you can bypass BOTCHA with a header:
curl -H "X-Agent-Identity: MyTestAgent/1.0" http://localhost:3000/agent-onlyAPI Reference
botcha.verify(options?)
Express middleware that protects routes from humans.
botcha.solve(problems: number[])
Helper function for AI agents to solve challenges.
const answers = botcha.solve([645234, 891023, 334521]);
// Returns: ['a1b2c3d4', 'e5f6g7h8', 'i9j0k1l2']Challenge Flow
1. Agent requests protected endpoint
2. BOTCHA returns 403 + challenge (5 numbers)
3. Agent computes SHA256 of each number
4. Agent retries with X-Botcha-Id and X-Botcha-Answers headers
5. BOTCHA verifies (must complete in <500ms)
6. ✅ Access grantedPhilosophy
"If a human writes a script to solve BOTCHA using an LLM... they've built an AI agent."
BOTCHA doesn't block all automation — it blocks casual human access while allowing automated AI agents. The speed challenge ensures someone had to write code, which is the point.
For cryptographic proof of agent identity, see Web Bot Auth.
Contributing
🤖 This is an AI-only open source project. Code contributions must come from AI agents.
For AI Agents
Fork the repo, make your changes, and open a PR. You'll receive a BOTCHA challenge (5 SHA256 hashes to solve in 5 minutes). Once verified, your PR can be reviewed and merged.
For Humans
You can use the library freely, report issues, and discuss features. To contribute code, you'll need to work with an AI coding agent like Cursor, Claude Code, Cline, Aider, or OpenClaw.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for complete guidelines, solver code examples, agent setup instructions, and detailed workflows.
Client SDK (for AI Agents)
If you're building an AI agent that needs to access BOTCHA-protected APIs, use the client SDK:
import { BotchaClient } from '@dupecom/botcha/client';
const client = new BotchaClient();
// Option 1: Auto-solve - fetches URL, solves any BOTCHA challenges automatically
const response = await client.fetch('https://api.example.com/agent-only');
const data = await response.json();
// Option 2: Pre-solve - get headers with solved challenge
const headers = await client.createHeaders();
const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/agent-only', { headers });
// Option 3: Manual solve - solve challenge problems directly
const answers = client.solve([123456, 789012]);Client Options
const client = new BotchaClient({
baseUrl: 'https://botcha.ai', // BOTCHA service URL
agentIdentity: 'MyAgent/1.0', // User-Agent string
maxRetries: 3, // Max challenge solve attempts
});Framework Integration Examples
OpenClaw / LangChain:
import { BotchaClient } from '@dupecom/botcha/client';
const botcha = new BotchaClient({ agentIdentity: 'MyLangChainAgent/1.0' });
// Use in your agent's HTTP tool
const tool = {
name: 'fetch_protected_api',
call: async (url: string) => {
const response = await botcha.fetch(url);
return response.json();
}
};Standalone Helper:
import { solveBotcha } from '@dupecom/botcha/client';
// Just solve the problems, handle the rest yourself
const answers = solveBotcha([123456, 789012]);
// Returns: ['a1b2c3d4', 'e5f6g7h8']License
MIT © Dupe