Developer releases HatFetch, open-source MCP server to help AI agents bypass bot blocks

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A developer who runs residential proxy service ProxyHat has released HatFetch, a free MIT-licensed MCP server designed to give AI agents like Claude and Cursor reliable access to web pages. The tool addresses two common failures when LLMs attempt web access: JavaScript-heavy sites that return empty content and commercial sites that block bots with 403 errors or CAPTCHA challenges. HatFetch uses a tiered escalation approach, starting with a plain HTTP fetch and clean Markdown extraction before escalating to a stealth headless browser and residential proxies only when needed. Optional CAPTCHA-solving support is also included for cases where interactive challenges still appear. The developer acknowledges the tool is not foolproof against all anti-bot systems but says it performs reliably on server-rendered sites, JavaScript apps, and geo-restricted or rate-limited pages.

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