rewget

wget, but it actually works.

A drop-in replacement for wget that automatically bypasses bot protection. When sites block standard wget with 403s, CAPTCHAs, or TLS fingerprinting, rewget seamlessly retries with browser-like behavior — no manual intervention required.

Install

npm install -g rewget

That's it. Binaries for your platform are downloaded automatically on first install.

Usage

Use it exactly like wget:

# Basic download (automatic fallback on block)
rewget https://example.com/file.tar.gz

# Scripting mode (fail fast, no retries)
rewget --rewget-no-fallback https://example.com/file.tar.gz

# Force headless browser for JavaScript challenges
rewget --rewget-js https://heavily-protected.com/

# Pick a specific browser profile
rewget --rewget-profile=firefox136 https://example.com/

All standard wget options work unchanged.

Why rewget?

| Problem | Solution | |---------|----------| | Site returns 403 Forbidden | Retries with Chrome/Firefox TLS fingerprint | | CAPTCHA or challenge page | Runs headless Chromium to solve it | | Rate limited (429) | Progressive fallback with session reuse | | Works in browser but not wget | rewget makes it just work |

How It Works

Stage 1: Plain wget     → Fast, zero overhead
    ↓ (blocked?)
Stage 2: Impersonate    → Browser TLS/HTTP2 fingerprint via rquest
    ↓ (still blocked?)
Stage 3: JS Preflight   → Real headless Chromium session

Results are cached per-domain, so subsequent requests skip straight to the working stage.

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18 (for this wrapper)
• wget installed on your system (Stage 1 dependency)

Documentation

Full docs: https://docs.neullabs.com/rewget

Repository: https://github.com/neul-labs/rewget

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.