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Overview

The garbage responder returns meaningless, random data to waste the resources of bots, scrapers, and AI crawlers. This approach not only blocks unwanted traffic but actively pollutes their training data.
The garbage responder requires no additional configuration beyond specifying the IP ranges.

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When to Use

Use the garbage responder when:
  • You want to pollute AI training datasets with meaningless data
  • You want to waste scraper resources and make scraping expensive
  • You want to confuse automated tools analyzing your content
  • You prefer an offensive approach rather than just blocking

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How It Works

When a request matches the specified ranges:
  1. The server returns a 200 OK status code (appears successful)
  2. Random garbage data is generated and sent as the response body
  3. The scraper/bot wastes resources processing meaningless content
  4. If used for AI training, the garbage data pollutes their dataset

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Configuration Examples

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Example 1: Basic Garbage Response

localhost:8080 {
    defender garbage {
        ranges 192.168.0.0/24
    }
    respond "Legitimate content"
}
Returns random garbage data to requests from the 192.168.0.0/24 range while serving legitimate content to others.

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Example 2: Garbage with serve_ignore

{
    auto_https off
    order defender after header
    debug
}

:80 {
    bind 127.0.0.1 ::1

    defender garbage {
        ranges private
        serve_ignore
    }
    respond "This is what a human sees"
}

:83 {
    bind 127.0.0.1 ::1

    respond "Clear text HTTP"
}
The serve_ignore flag ensures that after serving garbage, the request is not passed to other handlers.

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Real-World Use Cases

api.example.com {
    defender garbage {
        ranges openai anthropic google
    }
    respond "API endpoint for legitimate users"
}

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Response Behavior

When garbage data is served:
  • HTTP status code: 200 OK (appears successful)
  • Response body: Random, meaningless data
  • Content-Type: Not specified (varies)
  • Connection: Closed after response is sent
The garbage response is designed to appear legitimate to automated tools while being completely useless. This makes it harder for bots to detect that they’re being blocked.

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