Enforce Agent Rules

Enforcement is level 2 of SilentShield's AI Agent Control: instead of only recording AI agent visits, your server or edge actively applies your per-key policy — each agent is allowed, throttled, or blocked. It builds directly on observe mode. The enforcement components (Next.js middleware, sidecar binary, Cloudflare Worker) are currently provided on request during early access — contact [email protected].

Observe First, Then Enforce

Our clear recommendation: enable observation first, let it run for a week or two, and review the report before you block anything — the same staged rollout as Wordfence's learning mode or DMARC (none → quarantine → reject). Only the report shows which AI services actually visit your site and what a block would cost you, for example citations in AI search. Enforcing without that picture means deciding blind.

How Enforcement Works

Every enforcer shares the same contract: it fetches a policy bundle for your API key, verifies the bundle's Ed25519 signature against SilentShield's pinned public keys, and then decides locally — allow, deny, or throttle — without any call on the request path.

You fetch the pinned signing keys once from https://api.silentshield.io/.well-known/silentshield-agent-keys. And every enforcer fails open: on any error — network, signature, expired bundle — the request is let through. Enforcement can never take your site down.

Setups

Next.js (Edge Middleware)

The same Next.js adapter that observes can also enforce. Set the policy environment variables; the middleware then applies your policy at the edge:

AGENT_POLICY_URL=https://api.silentshield.io/api/v1/agent/policy
AGENT_OBSERVE_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY
AGENT_TRUSTED_KEYS=[{"kid":"…","key":"<base64 ed25519 pubkey>"}]

Reverse Proxy (nginx / Caddy / Traefik)

One tiny sidecar binary serves all three proxies: the proxy asks it once per request via forward auth. Start it with your site key and the trusted keys:

AGENT_POLICY_URL="https://api.silentshield.io/api/v1/agent/policy" \
AGENT_SITE_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY" \
AGENT_TRUSTED_KEYS='[{"kid":"…","key":"<base64 ed25519 pubkey>"}]' \
AGENT_SIDECAR_LISTEN=":8127" \
  ./agent-sidecar

The sidecar answers on GET /auth with 204 (allow), 403 (deny), or 429 plus Retry-After (throttle). Wire it into your proxy:

location = /_ss_auth {
    internal;
    proxy_pass              http://127.0.0.1:8127/auth;
    proxy_pass_request_body off;
    proxy_set_header        Content-Length "";
    proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-Method $request_method;
    proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-Uri    $request_uri;
    proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-Host   $host;
    proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-For    $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header        User-Agent         $http_user_agent;
    proxy_set_header        Signature          $http_signature;
    proxy_set_header        Signature-Input    $http_signature_input;
    proxy_set_header        Signature-Agent    $http_signature_agent;
}
location / {
    auth_request /_ss_auth;
    # ... your normal proxy_pass to the origin ...
}

example.com {
    forward_auth 127.0.0.1:8127 {
        uri /auth
        copy_headers User-Agent Signature Signature-Input Signature-Agent
        # Caddy sends X-Forwarded-Method/-Uri/-Host automatically
    }
    reverse_proxy origin:8080
}

http:
  middlewares:
    silentshield:
      forwardAuth:
        address: "http://agent-sidecar:8127/auth"
        authRequestHeaders:
          - "User-Agent"
          - "Signature"
          - "Signature-Input"
          - "Signature-Agent"

Cloudflare Worker

The Cloudflare Worker enforcer verifies the policy bundle with Web Crypto Ed25519 and blocks before requests ever reach your origin:

cd enforcers/cloudflare-worker
npx wrangler secret put AGENT_SITE_KEY
# set AGENT_POLICY_URL + AGENT_TRUSTED_KEYS in wrangler.toml [vars]
npx wrangler deploy

Configure Your Policy

Which agent may do what is configured per API key in the agent hub: API Keys → select a key → Agent. Presets cover the common cases; every change becomes a newly signed bundle that your enforcers pick up automatically.

Open the agent hub →