Verify your installation
Verification answers three separate questions:
- Is the sensor present?
- Is it reporting to the site currently selected in WebDecoy?
- Can a real detection travel through the full pipeline?
Do not collapse those into one check. A quiet sensor can be installed correctly, and the dashboard’s example-decoy test can prove the pipeline even before your site sensor is installed.
Start on the Sensors page
Section titled “Start on the Sensors page”Open Sensors in the app sidebar and find the site you installed. Each source has a status:
| Status | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Reporting | Events are arriving now | Installation is working |
| Nothing reported yet | The source exists, but has never sent an event | Run the source-specific check below |
| Quiet | It reported before, but not recently | Confirm the source is still deployed and enabled |
| Reporting off | An edge worker is deployed but sensing is disabled | Turn reporting on from the integration |
Browser detection script
Section titled “Browser detection script”- Visit a deployed page that should contain the script.
- Open browser developer tools and select Network.
- Reload the page and find
bot-detection.min.js. It must return200. - Inspect the page source and confirm the tag has both
data-aidanddata-sid. - In the dashboard setup checklist, enter the page URL in the install verifier. WebDecoy fetches the page from outside your browser and reports whether it can see the tag.
If the file loads but Sensors stays at Nothing reported yet, the page may have only normal human traffic scoring below the reporting threshold. That is not proof of failure. Use the dashboard example-decoy test to prove the pipeline, then add an edge or server sensor if you need to see non-JavaScript traffic.
Cloudflare edge sensor
Section titled “Cloudflare edge sensor”Send the reserved test User-Agent through a hostname and route covered by the Worker:
curl -A "WebDecoy-Test/1.0" https://your-site.example/The sensor always reports this request, and WebDecoy labels it Test so it is excluded from stats and billing. It should appear in Detections within a minute.
If it does not:
- Confirm the DNS record is proxied in Cloudflare (orange cloud).
- Confirm the request path matches the Worker route.
- Open Integrations → Cloudflare → Edge Sensor and check Reporting: On.
- Update older managed Workers from the integration panel before testing again.
WordPress plugin
Section titled “WordPress plugin”First confirm that WebDecoy appears in WordPress Admin and the plugin status is active. Then send:
curl -A "WebDecoy-Test/1.0" https://your-site.example/The latest plugin records the request locally and returns a 403 JSON receipt. It appears immediately in the plugin’s Detections page and, for a connected site, in the WebDecoy cloud dashboard within seconds.
If every detection has the same IP, configure Settings → Protection → Client IP / Reverse Proxy before enabling blocking. See the WordPress proxy setup.
Node.js and framework SDKs
Section titled “Node.js and framework SDKs”Send the same test User-Agent to a route that runs protect() or your framework middleware:
curl -A "WebDecoy-Test/1.0" http://localhost:3000/The request works on localhost. With WEBDECOY_API_KEY configured, a Test detection appears in the cloud dashboard within seconds. Without an API key, the SDK is in local-only mode and has nowhere to report the result.
Prove the detection pipeline
Section titled “Prove the detection pipeline”On the dashboard setup checklist, choose Send a test detection or Trip your decoy now. WebDecoy requests the live example decoy and polls the real detections list until the event lands.
When it succeeds:
- Open View it to inspect the detection.
- Confirm its property matches the site selected in the header.
- Open Decide what happens to the next one to review enforcement in monitor mode.
This test is intentionally independent of your installed sensor. It proves account → decoy → ingest → detection → dashboard. Use the source-specific checks above to prove the install itself.
Still not reporting?
Section titled “Still not reporting?”Work through Troubleshooting or return to Choose an installation method to confirm the sensor matches your stack and coverage goal.