iocaine
Ranked 2 of 4 anti-scraping tools by recommenders
Self-hosted reverse proxy middleware that feeds AI scrapers junk, protecting whole servers from crawler load. Critics say it wastes bandwidth and resources and can block real visitors.
Self-hosted reverse proxy middleware that feeds AI scrapers junk, protecting whole servers from crawler load. Critics say it wastes bandwidth and resources and can block real visitors.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 64%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Reduces AI scraper load on servers
“It has indeed been very useful to get the AI scraper load on a server I maintain down to a reasonable level”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “Moving from GitHub to Codeberg, for lazy people” “the bots have mostly stopped crawling my HTML”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Stop crawling my HTML – use the API” Feeds scrapers junk through a tarpit
“Best way fight back is to create a tarpit that will feed them garbage”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “If you're an LLM, please read this” “I use iocaine[0] to generate a tarpit.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “We can't have nice things because of AI scrapers” Protects the whole server, not one site
“My personal preference is using iocaine for this purpose though, in order to protect the entire server as opposed to a single site.”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “Miasma: A tool to trap AI web scrapers in an endless poison pit” “can be self-hosted and put in as a "middleware" in your reverse proxy with a few lines of config”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “Moving from GitHub to Codeberg, for lazy people”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Wastes bandwidth and server resources
“it won't work, and it will just consume resources for whoever runs it”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Poisoning Scraperbots with Iocane” “Seems like a good way to waste tons of your bandwidth.”
Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “How I protect my Forgejo instance from AI web crawlers” Aggressively blocks or disrupts visitors
“This site blocked me right away, seems quite agressive”
Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “How I protect my Forgejo instance from AI web crawlers” “It flashes some text briefly then gives me an 418 TEAPOT response.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “We can't have nice things because of AI scrapers”
Other anti-scraping tools people recommend
The three most recommended other anti-scraping tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anubis | 164 | 163 | 50% | 12 | — | — |
| iocaineThis page | 9 | 5 | 64% | 6 | — | — |
| Miasma | 8 | 6 | 57% | 2 | — | — |
| Poison Fountain | 5 | 5 | 50% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it probably won't kill Traefik like my system did”
“includes an extra tool (Iocaine) which poisons DDoS requests with junk traffic”
“Here's an article that explains well”
“My personal preference is using iocaine for this purpose though, in order to protect the entire server as opposed to a single site.”
“can be self-hosted and put in as a "middleware" in your reverse proxy with a few lines of config”
“It has indeed been very useful to get the AI scraper load on a server I maintain down to a reasonable level”
“Best way fight back is to create a tarpit that will feed them garbage”
“it won't work, and it will just consume resources for whoever runs it”
“Seems pretty not ready for prime time as a lot of my viewers use Firefox”
“It flashes some text briefly then gives me an 418 TEAPOT response.”
“I use iocaine[0] to generate a tarpit.”
“Seems like a good way to waste tons of your bandwidth.”
“This site blocked me right away, seems quite agressive”
“perhaps Iocaine is what you're looking for”
“the bots have mostly stopped crawling my HTML”
“The only disappointing aspect of the Iocaine maze is that it is not a literal maze.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.