Ladder is a self-hosted HTTP web proxy that removes CORS headers and modifies HTML to test paywall implementations and content delivery behavior.
The tool addresses the problem of testing how websites serve content under different conditions by acting as an intermediary that can strip or modify HTTP headers, inject or remove code, and simulate different client environments through custom user agents and IP addresses. It allows developers and researchers to observe paywall configurations and access controls without being blocked by cross-origin restrictions or content security policies that would normally prevent such testing.
Ladder suits developers, researchers, and publishers who need to verify their own paywall implementations or study how content delivery works across different client types. The tool is designed for legitimate testing and quality assurance purposes only. It works best on websites that serve different content based on client type rather than those with advanced anti-bot mechanisms like fingerprinting or behavioral analysis. The project acknowledges that third-party tools like FlareSolverr exist for rendering pages in headless browsers, but notes these are separate from Ladder and may have their own legal restrictions.
The project maintains active release cycles with prebuilt binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows, plus Docker containers for both amd64 and arm64 architectures. Development includes a functional API alongside the web interface, with features like domain-based rulesets, basic authentication, and access logging. The tool exposes rulesets to other Ladder instances for shared configurations. Planned additions include robots.txt testing and optional TOR proxy support, though these remain unimplemented.
