I built an SDK that scrambles HTML so scrapers get garbage
Hey HN -- I'm a solo dev. Built this because I got tired of AI crawlers reading my HTML in plain text while robots.txt did nothing. The core trick: shuffle characters and words in your HTML using a seed, then use CSS (flexbox order, direction: rtl, unicode-bidi) to put them back visually. Browser renders perfectly. textContent returns garbage. On top of that: email/phone RTL obfuscation with decoy characters, AI honeypots that inject prompt instructions into LLM scrapers, clipboard interception, canvas-based image rendering (no img src in DOM), robots.txt blocking 30+ AI crawlers, and…
I built an SDK that scrambles HTML so scrapers get garbage launched on March 12, 2026 with 16 votes, #953 of 23,380 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches.
In plain words
This SDK scrambles HTML content to prevent AI crawlers from reading website text while keeping pages visually normal for human users. It uses CSS techniques like flexbox and text direction to render content correctly in browsers while returning garbage to scraping tools. The tool also includes features like email obfuscation, honeypots that inject instructions into LLM scrapers, clipboard interception, and canvas-based image rendering. It blocks 30+ known AI crawlers via robots.txt and adds forensic markers to detect content theft. The maker acknowledges it cannot stop determined adversaries using headless browsers or screenshot-based extraction.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Welcome to obscrd. Protect your website content from scrapers, AI bots, and data theft. Open-source content protection system for React.
Open-source content protection system for React. Scramble your HTML, block AI crawlers, and defend your content at every layer. import { ObscrdProvider, ProtectedText } from '@obscrd/react' export default function App() { return ( <ObscrdProvider seed={process.env.OBSCRD_SEED}> <ProtectedText> This text is readable by humans but scrambled for scrapers. </ProtectedText> </ObscrdProvider> ) } Y o u r c o n t e n t i s b e i n g s c r a p e d r i g h t n o w . o b s c r d s t o p s i t . obscrd uses CSS ordering and decoy character injection. Users see normal text — scrapers reading textContent get garbled nonsense. obscrd scrambles your HTML while CSS reconstructs it visually. Scrapers and AI…from obscrd.dev
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hey HN -- I'm a solo dev. Built this because I got tired of AI crawlers reading my HTML in plain text while robots.txt did nothing. The core trick: shuffle characters and words in your HTML using a seed, then use CSS (flexbox order, direction: rtl, unicode-bidi) to put them back visually. Browser renders perfectly.…
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