Introducing Bunny Shield bot detection: Smart, silent, and built for the modern web

The internet runs on automation. Some of it keeps things moving. Some of it breaks everything. Bots now make up a huge portion of all web traffic. And they’re not the clumsy scrapers of the past. Today’s bots are evasive, patient, and increasingly difficult to detect. They rotate IPs, spoof headers, run full headless browsers, and behave just enough like real users to sneak past traditional defenses.

Legacy filters, static blocklists, and header-based heuristics just don’t keep up anymore. So we built something that can. Bunny Shield bot detection is our new real-time, behavior-based engine that runs directly at the edge, understands how real users behave, and quietly shuts out malicious automation before it reaches your origin.

In this post, we’ll walk you through how it works, what you can configure, and how it helps you stay a hop ahead of modern bots.

Why modern bots are harder to stop

Not all bots are bad. But the ones that are can quietly drain your resources, skew your analytics, and open the door to abuse.

They scrape your content. They brute-force login pages. They submit fake forms, hoard inventory, and simulate traffic for click fraud. And they’re not slowing down.

Ten years ago, most bots were loud, fast, and easy to catch. They ignored robots.txt, hit every endpoint with the same header set, and usually came from known datacenters.

Today, bots have evolved. Many use:

• Full browser environments
• JavaScript execution
• Distributed IP pools
• Behavior pacing to avoid rate limits
• Real user-agent strings and mobile device impersonation

And with the rise of AI-assisted scripting, it’s never been easier to build bots that fly under the radar. The real challenge now isn’t volume. It’s detecting bots that move slowly, mimic human behavior, and blend in with legitimate traffic.

Stop bots before they reach your origin

Stopping bots today means looking beyond patterns and headers. It means understanding traffic in real time, as it moves, and reacting before it ever touches your origin. That’s why Bunny Shield bot detection runs directly at the edge. It’s built into the bunny.net global request pipeline. No third-party scripts, no added latency, and no re-routed traffic. Just real-time protection, tightly integrated with the rest of your Bunny Shield stack.

Under the hood: how Bunny Shield detects bots in real time

Bot developers have stepped up their game. Instead of crude scripts, they now deploy full browser environments that run JavaScript, spoof headers, and blend in with real human traffic. So we built a system that goes beyond IP checks and header filtering, because those alone aren’t enough anymore.

Multi-layer request analysis

Every request that reaches Bunny Shield is evaluated using multiple layers of analysis, designed to catch automation wherever it tries to hide:

• Request integrity checks analyzes headers, query structures, and protocol patterns to detect spoofed or malformed requests.
• Request body inspection for applicable methods, which will inspect payload structure and behavior to spot signs of scripted abuse.
• External intelligence uses IP and ASN reputation, rate patterns, and global behavior history to flag known abuse sources.

Optional browser validation

To catch evasive and headless bots, Bunny Shield can optionally inject a lightweight, invisible JavaScript challenge. This evaluates client capabilities in real time and confirms that the browser behaves like a legitimate user. It’s fast, frictionless for real traffic, and gives you an additional layer of assurance when fighting harder-to-detect automation.

Scoring and rule execution

All these signals are combined into a bot score. If the request exceeds your configured sensitivity threshold, Bunny Shield takes the action you’ve selected:

• Log: Track activity without enforcement
• Challenge: Issue a browser validation step before letting the request through

This behavior is controlled by Rule Execution Mode and can be updated at any time.

Sensitivity profiles

You can choose from predefined detection profiles, each tuned to different use cases:

• Low (default) catches basic bots with minimal overhead using lightweight IP and header analysis.
• Medium applies balanced checks across IPs, headers, and fingerprint signals to detect common automation.
• High enables strict fingerprint validation, request integrity analysis, and IP behavior scoring to stop advanced or evasive bots.
• Custom lets you configure individual detection components for total control.

Granular detection toggles

With Custom mode enabled, you can adjust:

• Request integrity looks for anomalies in headers, protocol usage, and request structure.
• IP address scores requests based on IP reputation, behavior, and known rate patterns.
• Fingerprint sensitivity determines how assertively Bunny Shield should treat unusual browser fingerprints as bots.
• Complex fingerprinting (Enterprise only) combines advanced entropy analysis and cross-session consistency.

These options let you tailor detection to match your traffic profile and risk tolerance. And with Edge Rules, you can disable bot detection dynamically based on headers, cookies, IP addresses, or specific endpoints, giving you full control over when and where protection applies.

Full visibility into what’s happening

Bot detection isn’t a black box. Bunny Shield shows you exactly what it’s seeing and doing, in real time:

• Logged requests: Number of requests identified as bots but not challenged.
• Challenged requests: Number of requests that triggered browser validation. We give you the full picture, with clear metrics and event logs that show what’s being flagged and how it’s being handled. No guesswork required.

Simple to start. Smart behind the scenes.

There’s no SDK to install, no scripts to embed, and no complex setup process.

To enable bot detection:

1. Go to your pull zone
2. Click into the Bunny Shield tab
3. Enable Bot Detection
4. Choose your sensitivity level
5. Select your execution mode

That’s it. You’re now protected against bots using real-time detection, directly at the edge.

What’s next

Bots are always evolving, and so are we.

We’re continuing to enhance bot detection to stay ahead of the latest evasion techniques, help you adopt faster, and give you deeper control when you need it most. Here’s what’s coming next:

• Granular rule integration with the WAF
• Expanded fingerprint signals
• Bot scoring visibility for each request

And as always, we’re building it all in the open, based on real feedback from developers and teams like yours. Have thoughts or ideas? Drop a comment below and let us know what you’d like to see next.

Ready to block bots smarter?

Bot detection is available today on the Advanced and Enterprise plans. You can upgrade directly when enabling it or check out our pricing here to learn more. No CAPTCHAs. No friction. Just security that stays out of your users’ way. Hop into your dashboard, turn on bot detection, and experience protection that works quietly, effectively, and in real time.