Full Record of Implementing Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy for Douyin Parser

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Key Insights

Background

In developing the AstrBot Douyin parsing plugin, I encountered a common but tricky issue: Server IP blocked by Douyin risk control, causing API requests to return empty data. This article records the complete process from a simple retry mechanism to the final solution using Cloudflare Workers reverse proxy.

Problem Analysis

Initial Issue

When the plugin parses Douyin links, dysk.py returns None, manifesting as:

Videos can occasionally be parsed successfully
Images and live photos fail to parse completely
Logs show the API returned an empty response

Root Cause

Douyin's risk control mechanism detects the request source IP. When an abnormal request pattern is detected, it returns an empty response (HTTP 200 but the body is empty).

Solution Evolution

Phase 1: Implementing Retry Mechanism

Idea: When parsing fails, recreate the DouyinDownloader instance and retry.

Implementation Points:

Max retries: 5
Interval between retries: 5 seconds
Force instance recreation (to get a new Cookie) during retry

Code Snippet:

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Effect: The retry mechanism improves the success rate, but it treats the symptoms rather than the root cause. Once the IP is flagged by risk control, parsing still fails.

Phase 2: Introducing Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy

Idea:

Proxy API requests through CF Workers, utilizing CF's IP pool to avoid risk control.
Direct connection to CDN for video/image downloads to save CF traffic.

Expected Success Rate: 75-93%

Phase 3: Pitfalls During Implementation

Pitfall 1: CF Workers Response Body Empty

Phenomenon:

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Cause: CF Workers' automatic gzip compression caused the response body transmission to fail.

Attempted Solutions:

❌ Return fetch() result directly - Response body lost
❌ Use response.arrayBuffer() - Returned empty ArrayBuffer
❌ Set Content-Length header - CF still forced compression
✅ Base64 Encoding Transmission
- Successfully bypassed the compression issue

Phenomenon:

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This is an empty gzip file, indicating the Douyin server returned an empty response.

Cause Analysis:

ttwid API request successful (Response text length: 205)
Douyin detail API request failed (Response text length: 0)
CF Workers log shows: Request Cookie: No Cookie

Root Cause: Although Python's requests.Session() manages Cookies, when proxying through CF Workers, Cookies were not automatically sent to CF Workers.

Solution: Manually build the Cookie request header.

Final Solution

Architecture Design

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Complete Code

1. Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy Script

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2. Python Side Key Code (dysk.py snippet)

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3. Plugin Configuration File (confschema.json)

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Technical Key Points Summary

1. CF Workers Auto-compression Issue

Problem: CF Workers automatically gzip compresses the response, even if the Content-Length header is set, it cannot be disabled.

Solution: Use Base64 encoding to transmit data.

Principle:

CF's auto-compression targets text content.
Base64 encoded data is wrapped in JSON.
Although the JSON format response will also be compressed, it avoids the issue of lost response body.

Problem: requests.Session() Cookie management fails in proxy scenarios.

Solution:

Manually extract Set-Cookie from response headers.
Manually build Cookie request header.

Key Code:

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Performance and Success Rate

Test Results

Scenario	Without CF Proxy	With CF Proxy
Video Parsing	60-70%	95%+
Image Parsing	0-10%	95%+
Live Photo Parsing	0-10%	95%+

Advantages

High Success Rate: Utilizes CF's IP pool to avoid single IP risk control.
Save Traffic: Only proxies API requests; downloads connect directly to CDN.
Free Quota: CF Workers free tier offers 100,000 requests per day.
Global Acceleration: CF edge nodes provide low-latency access.

Considerations

CF Workers Limits:
- Free tier: 100,000 requests/day
- CPU time limit: 10-50ms/request
- Response body size: Unlimited (but recommended < 10MB)
Base64 Encoding Overhead:
- Data size increases by about 33%
- Encoding/decoding has CPU overhead
- Negligible impact for small data (< 100KB)
Cookie Management:
- Requires manual handling of Cookie extraction and sending
- Pay attention to Cookie domain and path settings

Deployment Guide

1. Deploy CF Workers

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2. Configure Plugin

In AstrBot WebUI:

Find the Douyin parsing plugin
Click "Configure"
Enable "Whether to enable Cloudflare proxy"
Fill in "Cloudflare Workers Proxy Address"
Save and reload the plugin

3. Test

Send a Douyin link to the bot and observe the log output:

Success: You should see the parsing result
Failure: Check CF Workers logs and Python logs

Troubleshooting

Issue 1: Empty Response Body

Symptom: Response text length: 0

Troubleshooting Steps:

Check Request Cookie in CF Workers logs.
Confirm if Cookie contains ttwid and msToken.
Check if the Python side correctly built the Cookie header.

Issue 2: Base64 Decode Failed

Symptom: JSON parse failed: Expecting value

Troubleshooting Steps:

Check if response format is {"data": "...", "encoding": "base64"}.
Confirm if CF Workers correctly encoded the response.
Check if the response was truncated.

Issue 3: CF Workers Timeout

Symptom: Proxy request failed: timeout

Cause: Douyin API response is slow or CF Workers CPU time exceeded limit.

Solution:

Increase timeout setting on Python side.
Optimize CF Workers code (reduce unnecessary operations).
Consider using CF Workers paid plan.

Summary

By using Cloudflare Workers reverse proxy, the Douyin API risk control issue was successfully solved. Key technical points:

Base64 Encoding: Bypass CF auto-compression.
Manual Cookie Management: Ensure authentication information is passed correctly.
Retry Mechanism: Improve fault tolerance.
Split Architecture: API via proxy, downloads via direct connection.

This solution is not only applicable to Douyin but can also be extended to other platforms with risk control mechanisms (such as Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, etc.).

References

Background

Problem Analysis

Initial Issue

When the plugin parses Douyin links, dysk.py returns None, manifesting as:

Videos can occasionally be parsed successfully
Images and live photos fail to parse completely
Logs show the API returned an empty response

Root Cause

Douyin's risk control mechanism detects the request source IP. When an abnormal request pattern is detected, it returns an empty response (HTTP 200 but the body is empty).

Solution Evolution

Phase 1: Implementing Retry Mechanism

Idea: When parsing fails, recreate the DouyinDownloader instance and retry.

Implementation Points:

Max retries: 5
Interval between retries: 5 seconds
Force instance recreation (to get a new Cookie) during retry

Code Snippet:

PYTHON

def _parse_douyin_sync(self, url):
    max_retries = 5
    retry_delay = 5

    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        try:
            current_time = time.time()

            if attempt == 0:
                # First attempt: Reuse instance (within 5 minutes)
                if self.dy_downloader is None or (current_time - self.dy_downloader_time) > 300:
                    self.dy_downloader = DouyinDownloader()
                    self.dy_downloader_time = current_time
            else:
                # On retry: Force recreate instance
                self.dy_downloader = DouyinDownloader()
                self.dy_downloader_time = current_time

            result = self.dy_downloader.get_detail(url)

            if result is not None:
                return (result, self.dy_downloader)

            if attempt < max_retries - 1:
                time.sleep(retry_delay)
        except Exception as e:
            if attempt < max_retries - 1:
                time.sleep(retry_delay)
            else:
                raise

    return (None, self.dy_downloader)

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Effect: The retry mechanism improves the success rate, but it treats the symptoms rather than the root cause. Once the IP is flagged by risk control, parsing still fails.

Phase 2: Introducing Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy

Idea:

Proxy API requests through CF Workers, utilizing CF's IP pool to avoid risk control.
Direct connection to CDN for video/image downloads to save CF traffic.

Expected Success Rate: 75-93%

Phase 3: Pitfalls During Implementation

Pitfall 1: CF Workers Response Body Empty

Phenomenon:

Response status: 200
Response headers: {'content-length': '0', 'content-type': 'text/plain'}
Response text length: 0

CodeBlock Loading...

Cause: CF Workers' automatic gzip compression caused the response body transmission to fail.

Attempted Solutions:

❌ Return fetch() result directly - Response body lost
❌ Use response.arrayBuffer() - Returned empty ArrayBuffer
❌ Set Content-Length header - CF still forced compression
✅ Base64 Encoding Transmission
- Successfully bypassed the compression issue

Phenomenon:

Original response length: 20
Original response content (hex): 1f8b08000000000000ff03000000000000000000
Decompressed length: 0

CodeBlock Loading...

This is an empty gzip file, indicating the Douyin server returned an empty response.

Cause Analysis:

ttwid API request successful (Response text length: 205)
Douyin detail API request failed (Response text length: 0)
CF Workers log shows: Request Cookie: No Cookie

Root Cause: Although Python's requests.Session() manages Cookies, when proxying through CF Workers, Cookies were not automatically sent to CF Workers.

Solution: Manually build the Cookie request header.

Final Solution

Architecture Design

┌─────────────┐      ┌──────────────────┐      ┌─────────────┐
│   Python    │─────▶│  CF Workers      │─────▶│  Douyin API  │
│   Client    │      │(RevProxy + Base64)│      │             │
└─────────────┘      └──────────────────┘      └─────────────┘
      │                                                │
      │                                                │
      └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                Direct download video/image

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Complete Code

1. Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy Script

// cloudflare_worker.js
// Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy Script - Proxy Douyin API
export default {
  async fetch(request) {
    // Handle OPTIONS preflight requests
    if (request.method === "OPTIONS") {
      return new Response(null, {
        status: 200,
        headers: {
          "Access-Control-Allow-Origin": "*",
          "Access-Control-Allow-Methods": "GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS",
          "Access-Control-Allow-Headers": "*",
          "Access-Control-Max-Age": "86400",
        },
      });
    }

    const url = new URL(request.url);

    // Support multiple target domains
    const targetHosts = {
      "douyin": "www.douyin.com",
      "ttwid": "ttwid.bytedance.com"
    };

    // Extract target type from path
    // Example: /douyin/aweme/v1/web/aweme/detail/ or /ttwid/ttwid/union/register/
    const pathMatch = url.pathname.match(/^\/(douyin|ttwid)(\/.*)/);
    if (!pathMatch) {
      return new Response("Invalid path. Use /douyin/* or /ttwid/*", { status: 400 });
    }

    const targetType = pathMatch[1];
    const targetPath = pathMatch[2];
    const targetHost = targetHosts[targetType];

    // Build target request URL
    const targetUrl = `https://${targetHost}${targetPath}${url.search}`;

    try {
      // Copy request headers
      const headers = new Headers(request.headers);
      headers.set("Host", targetHost);

      // Debug: Print Cookie in request (comment out in production)
      // console.log('Request Cookie:', headers.get('Cookie') || 'No Cookie');

      // Remove CF related headers
      headers.delete("cf-connecting-ip");
      headers.delete("cf-ipcountry");
      headers.delete("cf-ray");
      headers.delete("cf-visitor");

      // Initiate request
      const response = await fetch(targetUrl, {
        method: request.method,
        headers: headers,
        body: request.body,
        redirect: 'follow'
      });

      // Debug: Print response status (comment out in production)
      // console.log('Response status:', response.status);
      // console.log('Response Content-Type:', response.headers.get('Content-Type'));

      // Read response completely
      const responseText = await response.text();

      // Debug: Print response length (comment out in production)
      // console.log('Response text length:', responseText.length);

      // Base64 encode to bypass CF auto-compression
      const base64Data = btoa(unescape(encodeURIComponent(responseText)));

      // Return Base64 encoded data
      return new Response(JSON.stringify({
        data: base64Data,
        encoding: 'base64'
      }), {
        status: response.status,
        headers: {
          'Content-Type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
          'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*',
        },
      });
    } catch (error) {
      return new Response(
        JSON.stringify({
          error: "Proxy request failed",
          message: error.message,
        }),
        {
          status: 500,
          headers: {
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
            "Access-Control-Allow-Origin": "*",
          },
        }
      );
    }
  },
};

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2. Python Side Key Code (dysk.py snippet)

PYTHON

class DouyinDownloader:
    def __init__(self, enable_cf_proxy=False, cf_proxy_url=""):
        self.session = requests.Session()
        self.session.headers.update({
            "User-Agent": USERAGENT,
            "Referer": "https://www.douyin.com/",
        })
        self.ab = ABogus(USERAGENT)
        self.extractor = Extractor()
        self.enable_cf_proxy = enable_cf_proxy
        self.cf_proxy_url = cf_proxy_url.rstrip("/") if cf_proxy_url else ""

        print("Initializing (getting ttwid/msToken)...")
        self._init_tokens()

    def _init_tokens(self):
        base_str = string.digits + string.ascii_letters
        ms_token = "".join(random.choice(base_str) for _ in range(156))
        self.session.cookies.set("msToken", ms_token, domain=".douyin.com")
        data = {"region": "cn", "aid": 1768, "needFid": False, "service": "www.ixigua.com",
                "migrate_info": {"ticket": "", "source": "node"}, "cbUrlProtocol": "https", "union": True}

        # Use CF proxy or direct connection
        if self.enable_cf_proxy and self.cf_proxy_url:
            url = f"{self.cf_proxy_url}/ttwid/ttwid/union/register/"
            resp = self.session.post(url, json=data, timeout=30)
            if resp.status_code == 200:
                # Extract ttwid cookie from response and set to session
                if 'set-cookie' in resp.headers or 'Set-Cookie' in resp.headers:
                    cookie_header = resp.headers.get('set-cookie') or resp.headers.get('Set-Cookie')
                    # Debug: Print Set-Cookie (comment out in production)
                    # print(f"Received Set-Cookie: {cookie_header[:100] if cookie_header else 'None'}")

                    if cookie_header and 'ttwid=' in cookie_header:
                        ttwid_match = re.search(r'ttwid=([^;]+)', cookie_header)
                        if ttwid_match:
                            ttwid_value = ttwid_match.group(1)
                            self.session.cookies.set("ttwid", ttwid_value, domain=".douyin.com")
                            # Debug: Print set cookie (comment out in production)
                            # print(f"Set ttwid cookie: {ttwid_value[:50]}...")
        else:
            url = "https://ttwid.bytedance.com/ttwid/union/register/"
            resp = self.session.post(url, json=data, timeout=30)

        if resp.status_code != 200:
            raise Exception(f"Failed to initialize ttwid: HTTP {resp.status_code}")

    def get_detail(self, url_input):
        url = url_input.strip()
        aweme_id = self._resolve_short_url(url)

        if not aweme_id:
            return None

        print(f"Resolved ID: {aweme_id}")

        params = {
            "device_platform": "webapp",
            "aid": "6383",
            "channel": "channel_pc_web",
            "aweme_id": aweme_id,
            "update_version_code": "170400",
            "pc_client_type": "1",
            "version_code": "190500",
            "version_name": "19.5.0",
            "cookie_enabled": "true",
            "platform": "PC",
            "downlink": "10",
            "msToken": self.session.cookies.get("msToken")
        }

        params["a_bogus"] = self.ab.get_value(params)

        try:
            # Use CF proxy or direct connection
            if self.enable_cf_proxy and self.cf_proxy_url:
                api = f"{self.cf_proxy_url}/douyin/aweme/v1/web/aweme/detail/"
            else:
                api = "https://www.douyin.com/aweme/v1/web/aweme/detail/"

            self.session.headers.update({"User-Agent": USERAGENT})

            # If using CF proxy, manually add Cookie to request headers
            if self.enable_cf_proxy and self.cf_proxy_url:
                # Get all cookies and build Cookie header
                cookie_str = "; ".join([f"{k}={v}" for k, v in self.session.cookies.items()])
                # Debug: Print sent Cookie (comment out in production)
                # print(f"Sending Cookie: {cookie_str[:100]}...")

                headers_with_cookie = {"Cookie": cookie_str}
                resp = self.session.get(api, params=params, timeout=30, headers=headers_with_cookie)
            else:
                resp = self.session.get(api, params=params, timeout=30)

            # Debug: Print request info (comment out in production)
            # print(f"API Request: {api}")
            # print(f"Response Status Code: {resp.status_code}")
            # print(f"Response Headers: {dict(resp.headers)}")

            if resp.status_code == 200:
                try:
                    resp_json = resp.json()

                    # If using CF proxy, response will be Base64 encoded
                    if self.enable_cf_proxy and self.cf_proxy_url and isinstance(resp_json, dict) and 'encoding' in resp_json:
                        if resp_json.get('encoding') == 'base64':
                            import base64
                            decoded_text = base64.b64decode(resp_json['data']).decode('utf-8')
                            data = json.loads(decoded_text)
                            # Debug: Print decode success info (comment out in production)
                            # print(f"Base64 decode success, JSON keys: {list(data.keys())}")
                        else:
                            data = resp_json
                    else:
                        data = resp_json

                    if data.get("aweme_detail"):
                        return self.extractor.extract_data(data["aweme_detail"])
                    else:
                        print(f"Failed to get aweme_detail")
                except Exception as e:
                    print(f"JSON parse failed: {e}")
                    # Debug: Print response content (comment out in production)
                    # print(f"Response content first 500 chars: {resp.text[:500]}")
            else:
                print(f"API request failed: {resp.status_code}")
                # Debug: Print response content (comment out in production)
                # print(f"Response content: {resp.text[:500]}")
        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Request exception: {e}")
        return None

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3. Plugin Configuration File (confschema.json)

JSON

{
  "enable_cf_proxy": {
    "description": "Whether to enable Cloudflare proxy",
    "type": "bool",
    "hint": "Enabling this will proxy requests via CF Workers, effectively avoiding IP risk control",
    "default": false
  },
  "cf_proxy_url": {
    "description": "Cloudflare Workers Proxy Address",
    "type": "string",
    "hint": "Enter your deployed CF Workers address, e.g.: https://your-worker.workers.dev",
    "default": ""
  }
}

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Technical Key Points Summary

1. CF Workers Auto-compression Issue

Problem: CF Workers automatically gzip compresses the response, even if the Content-Length header is set, it cannot be disabled.

Solution: Use Base64 encoding to transmit data.

Principle:

CF's auto-compression targets text content.
Base64 encoded data is wrapped in JSON.
Although the JSON format response will also be compressed, it avoids the issue of lost response body.

Problem: requests.Session() Cookie management fails in proxy scenarios.

Solution:

Manually extract Set-Cookie from response headers.
Manually build Cookie request header.

Key Code:

PYTHON

# Extract Cookie
cookie_header = resp.headers.get('set-cookie')
ttwid_match = re.search(r'ttwid=([^;]+)', cookie_header)
self.session.cookies.set("ttwid", ttwid_match.group(1), domain=".douyin.com")

# Send Cookie
cookie_str = "; ".join([f"{k}={v}" for k, v in self.session.cookies.items()])
headers_with_cookie = {"Cookie": cookie_str}
resp = self.session.get(api, headers=headers_with_cookie)

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Performance and Success Rate

Test Results

Scenario	Without CF Proxy	With CF Proxy
Video Parsing	60-70%	95%+
Image Parsing	0-10%	95%+
Live Photo Parsing	0-10%	95%+

Advantages

High Success Rate: Utilizes CF's IP pool to avoid single IP risk control.
Save Traffic: Only proxies API requests; downloads connect directly to CDN.
Free Quota: CF Workers free tier offers 100,000 requests per day.
Global Acceleration: CF edge nodes provide low-latency access.

Considerations

CF Workers Limits:
- Free tier: 100,000 requests/day
- CPU time limit: 10-50ms/request
- Response body size: Unlimited (but recommended < 10MB)
Base64 Encoding Overhead:
- Data size increases by about 33%
- Encoding/decoding has CPU overhead
- Negligible impact for small data (< 100KB)
Cookie Management:
- Requires manual handling of Cookie extraction and sending
- Pay attention to Cookie domain and path settings

Deployment Guide

1. Deploy CF Workers

BASH

# 1. Login to Cloudflare Dashboard
# 2. Go to Workers & Pages
# 3. Create a new Worker
# 4. Paste cloudflare_worker.js code
# 5. Deploy and get Worker URL

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2. Configure Plugin

In AstrBot WebUI:

Find the Douyin parsing plugin
Click "Configure"
Enable "Whether to enable Cloudflare proxy"
Fill in "Cloudflare Workers Proxy Address"
Save and reload the plugin

3. Test

Send a Douyin link to the bot and observe the log output:

Success: You should see the parsing result
Failure: Check CF Workers logs and Python logs

Troubleshooting

Issue 1: Empty Response Body

Symptom: Response text length: 0

Troubleshooting Steps:

Check Request Cookie in CF Workers logs.
Confirm if Cookie contains ttwid and msToken.
Check if the Python side correctly built the Cookie header.

Issue 2: Base64 Decode Failed

Symptom: JSON parse failed: Expecting value

Troubleshooting Steps:

Check if response format is {"data": "...", "encoding": "base64"}.
Confirm if CF Workers correctly encoded the response.
Check if the response was truncated.

Issue 3: CF Workers Timeout

Symptom: Proxy request failed: timeout

Cause: Douyin API response is slow or CF Workers CPU time exceeded limit.

Solution:

Increase timeout setting on Python side.
Optimize CF Workers code (reduce unnecessary operations).
Consider using CF Workers paid plan.

Summary

By using Cloudflare Workers reverse proxy, the Douyin API risk control issue was successfully solved. Key technical points:

Base64 Encoding: Bypass CF auto-compression.
Manual Cookie Management: Ensure authentication information is passed correctly.
Retry Mechanism: Improve fault tolerance.
Split Architecture: API via proxy, downloads via direct connection.

This solution is not only applicable to Douyin but can also be extended to other platforms with risk control mechanisms (such as Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, etc.).

Full Record of Implementing Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy for Douyin Parser

Full Record of Implementing Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy for Douyin Parser

Background

Problem Analysis

Initial Issue

Root Cause

Solution Evolution

Phase 1: Implementing Retry Mechanism

Phase 2: Introducing Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy

Phase 3: Pitfalls During Implementation

Pitfall 1: CF Workers Response Body Empty

Pitfall 2: Cookie Not Passed Correctly

Final Solution

Architecture Design

Complete Code

1. Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy Script

2. Python Side Key Code (dysk.py snippet)

3. Plugin Configuration File (confschema.json)

Technical Key Points Summary

1. CF Workers Auto-compression Issue

2. Cookie Propagation Issue

Performance and Success Rate

Test Results

Advantages

Considerations

Deployment Guide

1. Deploy CF Workers

2. Configure Plugin

3. Test

Troubleshooting

Issue 1: Empty Response Body

Issue 2: Base64 Decode Failed

Issue 3: CF Workers Timeout

Summary

References

Background

Problem Analysis

Initial Issue

Root Cause

Solution Evolution

Phase 1: Implementing Retry Mechanism

Phase 2: Introducing Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy

Phase 3: Pitfalls During Implementation

Pitfall 1: CF Workers Response Body Empty

Pitfall 2: Cookie Not Passed Correctly

Final Solution

Architecture Design

Complete Code

1. Cloudflare Workers Reverse Proxy Script

2. Python Side Key Code (dysk.py snippet)

3. Plugin Configuration File (confschema.json)

Technical Key Points Summary

1. CF Workers Auto-compression Issue

2. Cookie Propagation Issue

Performance and Success Rate

Test Results

Advantages

Considerations

Deployment Guide

1. Deploy CF Workers

2. Configure Plugin

3. Test

Troubleshooting

Issue 1: Empty Response Body

Issue 2: Base64 Decode Failed

Issue 3: CF Workers Timeout

Summary

References