> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://proxy-hopper.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> What Proxy Hopper is, how it works, and when to use it.

## What is Proxy Hopper?

Proxy Hopper sits between your application and the internet. When your application needs to call a third-party API, it sends the request to Proxy Hopper instead. Proxy Hopper picks an IP from your pool, makes the HTTPS request on your behalf, and returns the response — retrying on failure by rotating to a different IP and automatically quarantining broken proxies along the way.

```
Your app ─── X-Proxy-Hopper-Target: https://api.example.com ──► Proxy Hopper ──► proxy IP ──► api.example.com
```

Because Proxy Hopper owns the full HTTPS connection, it can retry on 429 or 5xx responses using a fresh IP without your application ever knowing a failure occurred.

## When to use it

Proxy Hopper is useful when your application:

* Makes outbound API requests at scale and hits rate limits per IP
* Needs to rotate through a pool of IPs to avoid blocks
* Requires automatic retry and failure recovery without building it yourself
* Needs per-API rate limit policies without coupling them to your application code

## Key features

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="IP rotation" icon="rotate">
    Each target maintains its own FIFO queue of proxy IPs. IPs are held off the pool between requests to respect rate limits.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Automatic quarantine" icon="shield">
    IPs that accumulate failures are quarantined for a configurable period, then released back into rotation automatically.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Client identity" icon="fingerprint">
    Each (IP, target) pair can carry a persistent browser fingerprint and cookie jar that rotates automatically on quarantine or 429.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Per-request control" icon="sliders">
    Override retries or attach a metrics tag on individual requests using `X-Proxy-Hopper-*` headers — no config changes required.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Redis HA" icon="server">
    In-memory backend for single-instance deployments. Redis backend for multi-instance HA with shared pool state.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Managed auth" icon="key" href="/concepts/managed-auth">
    Offload expiring upstream credentials — OAuth tokens, session cookies — to a token server Proxy Hopper calls and caches for you.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Quick start" icon="rocket" href="/quickstart">
    Install, configure, and send your first request in minutes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Targets" icon="crosshairs" href="/concepts/targets">
    Understand how targets work — the core routing concept.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Docker deployment" icon="docker" href="/admin/deployment/docker/simple">
    Deploy with Docker or Docker Compose.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Kubernetes" icon="dharmachakra" href="/admin/deployment/kubernetes/helm">
    Deploy on Kubernetes with the official Helm chart.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>