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Some pages do not want to be read: they answer a scraper with a JavaScript challenge, a CAPTCHA wall or a blank shell. For those, AgentKey carries BrightData’s Web Unlocker alongside the ordinary scrapers, reached with the same three calls — find_tools, describe_tool, execute_tool. It is the fallback, not the default: it returns the target site’s raw response rather than cleaned text, so use it when a normal scrape comes back blocked.

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What you can ask

  • “This page returns a bot-check wall when scraped — get me the real HTML.”
  • “Fetch this listing as seen from the UK.”
  • “Give me this page as markdown even though it sits behind a JavaScript challenge.”
  • “POST this form body to the endpoint and return the response.”
  • “Take a screenshot of this page once it has loaded.”
  • “Check whether this URL is reachable with a HEAD request from a German IP.”
  • “Retry the scrape that just failed through the unlocker and compare the result.”

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What’s covered

Unlocking a page
  • A single URL fetched through the Web Unlocker, with the target site’s response returned wrapped in a JSON object
  • Only the URL is required; the unlocker zone is configured on the server
Request shaping
  • GET by default, or POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD and OPTIONS
  • A raw request body for POST, PUT and PATCH — a JSON string or a URL-encoded form
  • A two-letter country code for the exit IP, for region-restricted content; omit it to let the provider choose
Output
  • The page’s HTML by default
  • The HTML converted to markdown for model input
  • A PNG screenshot of the rendered page
When to reach for it
  • Start with Firecrawl or Jina Reader for ordinary pages — Firecrawl’s automatic proxy escalation and Jina’s browser engine already get through most protection
  • Fall back to the unlocker when a scrape returns a challenge page, an empty shell or a block, and clean the HTML yourself or ask for markdown

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How to use it

Pass the request in plain language and let the router pick the tool:
Always describe_tool before executing — the unlocker’s data_format, method, body and country options differ from Firecrawl’s and Jina’s, and per-call costs differ.
Building with code? The fixed-contract web.scrape Scenario Method fetches one page as readable text and fails over across the scrapers, including the unlocker; see Scenario Methods.

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FAQ

No credentials are involved: the page is fetched as an anonymous visitor from the chosen country. What comes back is what the site serves to that visitor once the challenge is handled.
Any two-letter ISO country code the provider supports as an exit location; leave it unset to let the provider pick the best one.
Fetched live at request time; nothing is cached by AgentKey.