Dev.to API blocks 'urllib' User-Agent substring, not general bots

A developer discovered that dev.to's API blocks requests containing the substring "urllib" in the User-Agent header, rather than blocking based on general bot-like behavior. This was found through testing various User-Agent strings, revealing that common scripting clients like `curl` and `PostmanRuntime` are permitted, while even custom User-Agents with "urllib" are blocked. The developer's own scripts were inadvertently working because their User-Agent strings did not contain the forbidden substring, leading to a misunderstanding of the actual blocking mechanism. AI

IMPACT Understanding API-specific User-Agent filtering can prevent unexpected access issues for automated tools.

RANK_REASON Developer's technical blog post detailing a discovery about API behavior.

Read on dev.to — MCP tag →

• curl/8.0
• dev.to
• developer-presence-mcp/1.0
• foo-urllib-bar
• MCP server
• Mozilla/5.0
• my-git-manager
• PostmanRuntime/7.0
• publish_devto.py
• python-urllib/3.11
• reply_comments.py
• server.py
• urllib

• other

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