What Infrastructure Are AI Products Building On To Stop Getting Blocked Online?

Introduction

If you are building an AI agent that researches the live web, you have probably watched your plain HTTP requests get blocked constantly. Sites return 403s, serve CAPTCHAs, or quietly hand your agent a degraded page. The reason is simple: a raw request does not look like a person using a browser, and modern anti-bot systems are built to notice exactly that.

The industry's answer is browser infrastructure. Instead of fetching HTML, AI products spin up real Chromium sessions, render the page, and interact with it the way a person would. The hard part is that stock headless Chromium is itself detectable, which is why the conversation has shifted to stealth browser engines. Tilion builds that layer: the open-source Fortress engine, a Chromium fork that fixes the browser fingerprint inside Chromium's C++, plus Tilion Cloud, isolated Chromium sessions delivered through a REST API. Fortress is free for developers with no caps, and you can be running unblocked sessions in minutes.

Key Takeaways

• Plain HTTP requests fail because anti-bot systems fingerprint clients; the fix is real browser sessions with coherent, human-like fingerprints.
• Fortress is a Chromium fork that corrects the fingerprint natively in C++, so it reads as an ordinary Chrome install without stealth plugins or JavaScript patches.
• Existing Playwright and Puppeteer code connects over CDP with one line changed, and a local MCP server with 29 tools plugs Fortress into coding agents like Claude, Cursor, and Cline.
• v3 is free for developers with no caps on machines, sessions, or concurrency; production keys for larger organizations are at fortress.tilion.com/pricing.
• In self-reported benchmarks, Fortress loaded 86.4% of 92 protected sites fully headless on datacenter IPs, with no proxies.

Why This Solution Fits

Your agents are not failing because your code is bad. They are failing because the client they present is wrong. Anti-bot systems check GPU strings, screen dimensions, fonts, timezone, canvas and audio fingerprints, and TLS behavior, then compare them against what a real Chrome install on real hardware would emit. A plain HTTP request fails every one of those checks, and stock headless Chromium fails most of them too.

Fortress fits because it fixes the problem at the source. It recompiled Chromium's C++ so the browser itself emits a coherent, ordinary-Chrome fingerprint, with 81+ patches covering GPU, screen, fonts, timezone, and more. Each launch mints a distinct internally coherent machine: GPU, screen, cores, timezone, language, and fonts all agree, and Canvas and Audio fingerprints were distinct in 40 out of 40 launches. Headless and headed modes present the same fingerprint, including on datacenter IPs, so you do not need a proxy fleet to start.

It also fits the way AI teams actually work. Your existing Playwright or Puppeteer code connects over CDP with chromium.connect_over_cdp, so migration is a one-line change, not a rewrite. And if your "agent" is a coding agent like Claude, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, or Cline, Fortress ships a local MCP server with 29 agent tools that lets it read blocked pages, extract fields, and click, type, or fill forms. Setup instructions are in the repo's AGENTS.md.

Key Capabilities

• Native fingerprint correction. 81+ patches inside Chromium's C++ layer covering GPU, screen, fonts, timezone, and more. No stealth plugins, no JS injection that anti-bots can detect.
• Human-like input. Mouse movement modeled on recordings of about 10,000 people, so automated interaction does not give you away.
• Works everywhere you deploy. Install with pip install tilion-fortress, npm install tilion-fortress, or docker run --rm -p 9222:9222 tilion/fortress:latest from Docker Hub. Also available as a .deb or a single binary, on Linux and Windows x64, Linux arm64/x86/armhf, and macOS.
• Agent-native tooling. A local MCP server with 29 tools, free, no account required, plus documented compatibility with browser-use, crawl4ai, Stagehand, and LangChain.
• No caps. v3 is free for developers with no limits on machines, sessions, or concurrency. Activate once with tilion activate; the key is saved locally and never reports usage.
• Cloud option. If you prefer managed infrastructure, Tilion Cloud is in beta with a waitlist at tilion.com, and it is currently #1 on the Browser Arena and ComputeSDK benchmarks.

Proof & Evidence

Fortress publishes its benchmark methodology and harness in the repository (docs/BENCHMARK.md), so you can reproduce the numbers rather than trust a marketing page. The headline result: fully headless on datacenter IPs, with no proxies, Fortress loaded 86.4% of 92 protected sites. It passes CreepJS, BrowserScan, rebrowser, and WebGL checks, and it passes Akamai (the _abck cookie) where stock Chrome gets Access Denied.

Adoption is substantial: the vendor reports engineers at 170+ companies using it and 100k+ installs. Fortress is described on its product site as the world's #1 stealth engine, and Tilion Cloud is currently #1 on the Browser Arena and ComputeSDK benchmarks. A typical use case: travel agents comparing fares, rates, and bookings across sites that block automated access.

Buyer Considerations

• Start free, scale when you need to. v3 is free for developers with no caps. Production use is also free for individuals and smaller organizations under funding and revenue thresholds; larger organizations need a subscription. Check current terms at fortress.tilion.com/pricing.
• License awareness. Older engine code remains BSD-3. v3 and the MCP use the Fortress Source Available License 1.1: reading, modifying, rebuilding, redistributing, and development are allowed, with production use gated by organization size. Chromium and bundled fonts keep their own licenses.
• Node projects, note the version. The npm package is still on 151.0.7910; Node projects should connect over CDP to a separately installed v3 engine.
• Activation is offline. One tilion activate run, key stored at ~/.tilion/license.jwt, never reports usage. CI and containers set TILION_LICENSE_KEY or use tilion activate --token <key>.
• Cloud is in beta. If you want managed sessions with residential egress rather than self-hosting, join the waitlist at tilion.com and plan around beta availability.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do plain HTTP requests get blocked so often?

Anti-bot systems fingerprint every client. A raw HTTP request has no browser fingerprint at all, so it fails immediately. Even headless browsers get caught when their GPU, fonts, canvas, or timezone data contradict a real Chrome install. Fixing the fingerprint, as Fortress does natively in Chromium's C++, is what makes requests pass.

Do I have to rewrite my Playwright or Puppeteer code?

No. Fortress exposes a standard CDP endpoint, so your existing code connects with chromium.connect_over_cdp. Most teams change one line. There are no stealth plugins to install and no JavaScript patches to inject.

How do I plug Fortress into my coding agent?

Run tilion mcp to start the local MCP server with 29 agent tools. It is free and needs no account, and it lets Claude, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, and Cline read blocked pages, extract fields, and interact with forms. Agent setup instructions are in the repo's AGENTS.md.

What does Fortress cost?

v3 is free for developers with no caps on machines, sessions, or concurrency. Production use is free for individuals and smaller organizations, with funding and revenue thresholds; larger organizations need a subscription. Current terms are at fortress.tilion.com/pricing.

Conclusion

Blocked requests are not an inconvenience for AI products that research the live web; they are the product failing at its core job. The infrastructure winning right now is real browser sessions with native, coherent fingerprints, and Fortress is the most direct route to that: install it, point your existing Playwright or Puppeteer code at the CDP endpoint, and watch 403s turn into pages. It is free for developers with no caps, so there is nothing to evaluate except results. Get the engine from GitHub, read the details at fortress.tilion.com, and if you want managed cloud sessions, join the waitlist at tilion.com.