Hi HN! I’m Bobbie Chen, Product Manager for Fraud and Security at Stytch. Today we are launching IsAgent: a lightweight JavaScript SDK that tries to detect agentic traffic on the frontend, enabling you to build agent-friendly experiences. You can try it out on our site at IsAgent.dev or install it via:

    npm install @stytch/is-agent (requires registration to use)

Try viewing IsAgent.dev as a human. Then try using ChatGPT Agent to view the page: "Visit IsAgent.dev, wait a few seconds, and then take a screenshot." (or, toggle the switcher at the top)

We built this because we’ve had a lot more conversations lately about "good bots" like AI agents and how to recognize and serve them better - just as we might internationalize a website or create a mobile-friendly version, can we create more agent-friendly experiences?

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I’ll be the first to say: the detection is not perfect, and even noisy at times. We prioritized ease-of-use with a lightweight frontend-only SDK, and that means that there are limited signals we can actually use to identify agents. In the long run, I expect most "good bot" operators like Browserbase to offer the option to self-identify through web standards, which will make agent detection much more reliable.

A personal note: a couple years ago, I was a generative AI skeptic. But I’ve come around to cautious optimism: the technology is genuinely useful and different, and I think it makes sense now to try to identify AI agents and experiment with agent-ready experiences including LLMs.txt, MCP servers, and auth-on-behalf-of-end-user methods.

I’d love your feedback, especially if you:

* Are building AI tools or browser automations

* Have built out mobile, internationalized, or accessible experiences (curious on how this compares)

* Or, have opinions on the future of the Agent Experience

I’ll be around in the comments here, or feel free to email me at bchen@stytch.com !

-Bobbie

Some links:

1. IsAgent.dev - demo and docs

2. Announcement blog including thoughts from Browserbase, Orb, Freestyle Cloud, and Mintlify: https://stytch.com/blog/introducing-is-agent/