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Quick Start

Get up and running with rewget in 5 minutes.

Basic Download

rewget works exactly like wget:

# Download a file
rewget https://example.com/file.tar.gz

# Download with output filename
rewget -O myfile.tar.gz https://example.com/file.tar.gz

# Download to specific directory
rewget -P ./downloads/ https://example.com/file.tar.gz

Automatic Fallback in Action

When a site blocks your request, rewget automatically retries:

$ rewget https://protected-site.com/data.json

[rewget] 403 Forbidden - retrying with impersonation...
[rewget] Success at Stage 2 (chrome_131)

The fallback happens automatically - no configuration needed.

Common Scenarios

Download from Protected Sites

Most protected sites work automatically:

rewget https://cloudflare-protected.com/file.zip

Force Browser Mode

Skip straight to JavaScript preflight for heavily protected sites:

rewget --rewget-js https://heavily-protected.com/

Strict Mode (No Fallback)

For scripts where you want predictable behavior:

rewget --rewget-no-fallback https://example.com/file.tar.gz

This exits with wget's original error code if blocked.

Quiet Mode

Suppress rewget status messages:

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

Debug Mode

See detailed information about what's happening:

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

Using wget Options

All wget options work unchanged:

# Resume interrupted download
rewget -c https://example.com/large-file.iso

# Limit download speed
rewget --limit-rate=1M https://example.com/file.tar.gz

# Set user agent (Stage 1 only)
rewget --user-agent="MyApp/1.0" https://example.com/

# Follow redirects
rewget --max-redirect=5 https://example.com/

# Download recursively
rewget -r -l 2 https://example.com/docs/

Check Available Profiles

See what browser profiles are available:

$ rewget --rewget-list-profiles

Available browser profiles:

  chrome_131 - Chrome 131 on Windows
    Browser: Chrome 131.0.0.0
    Platform: Windows
    TLS: 17 cipher suites, GREASE: yes
    HTTP/2: 6 settings

  firefox_136 - Firefox 136 on Windows
    Browser: Firefox 136.0
    ...

Use a Specific Profile

Request impersonation with a specific browser:

rewget --rewget-profile=firefox_136 https://example.com/

View Cache Status

See which domains have cached stages:

# The cache is stored at ~/.cache/rewget/stage-cache.json
cat ~/.cache/rewget/stage-cache.json

Clear the cache:

rewget --rewget-clear-cache

Summary of Key Flags

Flag Description
--rewget-no-fallback Disable fallback, behave like wget
--rewget-quiet Suppress rewget messages
--rewget-debug Enable debug output
--rewget-js Force JavaScript preflight
--rewget-profile=NAME Use specific browser profile
--rewget-list-profiles List available profiles
--rewget-clear-cache Clear domain stage cache

Next Steps