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rewget

wget-compatible wrapper with automatic fallback

rewget is a drop-in replacement for wget that automatically retries with browser emulation when websites block standard wget requests.

  • :material-download:{ .lg .middle } Drop-in Replacement

    Use rewget exactly like wget. All wget options work unchanged.

    rewget https://example.com/file.tar.gz

  • :material-shield-check:{ .lg .middle } Automatic Bypass

    Automatically bypasses bot protection using browser emulation.

    No manual configuration needed.

  • :material-rocket-launch:{ .lg .middle } Three-Stage Fallback

    1. Plain wget (fast)
    2. TLS impersonation (stealth)
    3. Full browser (JavaScript)

  • :material-cog:{ .lg .middle } Highly Configurable

    Fine-tune behavior with --rewget-* flags while keeping wget semantics.

Quick Example

# Download with automatic fallback
rewget https://protected-site.com/file.tar.gz

# If the site blocks wget, rewget automatically:
# 1. Detects the 403/429 response
# 2. Retries with browser-like TLS fingerprint
# 3. Falls back to full browser if needed

Why rewget?

Many websites now block wget and curl with bot detection systems. rewget detects blocks two ways:

  • HTTP status codes: default fallback codes are 403, 429, 503, 520-529 (configurable via --rewget-fallback-codes)
  • Body patterns: known challenge markers such as cf-browser-verification, Just a moment, Pardon Our Interruption, Checking your browser, Attention Required, captcha-delivery

When either signal trips, rewget escalates to the next stage automatically. See detection.rs for the full pattern list.

Features

Feature Description
3-Stage Fallback wget → TLS impersonation → JavaScript preflight
6 Browser Profiles Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge with accurate fingerprints
Domain Caching Remembers successful stage per domain (7-day TTL)
Auto Chromium Downloads Chrome for Testing on first use (~150MB)
Signed Updates Profile updates verified with Ed25519 (--rewget-update-profiles)
wget or wget2 Pluggable engine via --rewget-engine or RWGET_ENGINE
Cross-Platform Linux (x86_64, aarch64), macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon)

Installation

brew install neul-labs/tap/rewget

npm install -g rewget

pip install rewget

curl -fsSL https://rewget.dev/install.sh | sh

git clone https://github.com/neul-labs/rewget
cd rewget
cargo build --release

Get Started :material-arrow-right: View on GitHub :material-github:

How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         rewget                                │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Stage 1: wget          "Try plain wget first"              │
│     ↓ (403/429?)                                            │
│  Stage 2: Impersonate   "Retry with browser TLS"            │
│     ↓ (still blocked?)                                      │
│  Stage 3: JS Preflight  "Full browser session"              │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

rewget starts with the fastest option (plain wget) and only escalates when needed. Most downloads complete at Stage 1 with zero overhead.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.