About tierproxy
tierproxy is a Python SDK and preview-stage gateway for routing AI/ML traffic across proxy providers. It is for engineers who need geographic and session controls, cost-aware routing, and usage visibility.
Key features
- 01Cost- and health-aware upstream routing
- 02Monthly budget guardrails
- 03Geo-targeting and sticky sessions
- 04Automatic failover and rate-limit learning
- 05Streaming responses and usage
- 06Sync and async Python APIs
Use cases
- 01Route requests through the cheapest healthy upstream
- 02Keep sessions consistent during multi-step crawls
- 03Enforce a monthly proxy-spend limit
- 04Stream usage data for monitoring
MCP support
The `tierproxy-mcp` server exposes proxy requests, health and usage inspection, and upstream routing as tools for MCP clients such as Claude, Cursor, Cline, and Windsurf.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
uvx tierproxyTIERPROXY_API_KEYSecrettierproxy API key (tp_live_... or tp_test_...). Sign up at https://tierproxy.com.Local servers need a runtime on your machine (e.g. Node.js 18+). Config file locations differ by client; see your client’s docs.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMEtierproxy — Python SDK
🚧 Preview release. Gateway is not yet generally available. Join the waitlist at [email protected]. SDK is functional but
tierproxy doctoragainst a live gateway requires invitation.
Premium multi-provider proxy infrastructure for AI/ML pipelines. Built for engineers who measure cost, latency, and success rate twice — and write Python.
Install
pip install tierproxy
Quickstart — five-second flavor
import tierproxy
r = tierproxy.get("https://example.com", country="US")
print(r.text)
That's it. (Set TIERPROXY_API_KEY env var first.)
Three lines, persistent session
from tierproxy import TierProxy
with TierProxy() as g:
print(g.me.get().client_id)
r = g.get("https://example.com", country="US", session_id="s1")
Auto-pick the cheapest healthy upstream every request
g = TierProxy(routing="cheapest") # also: "fastest", "most_reliable", "balanced"
g.get("https://example.com") # picks via /v1/health/upstreams under the hood
Cost guardrails
g = TierProxy(
monthly_budget_usd=200.0, # raises BudgetExceededError before going over
)
Power-user knobs
import httpx
from tierproxy import TierProxy
from tierproxy.retry import RetryPolicy
g = TierProxy(
api_key="tp_live_...",
base_url="https://my-self-hosted-gw:8444",
timeout=10.0,
retry_policy=RetryPolicy(max_retries=5, retry_on_status=frozenset({500, 502})),
http_client=httpx.Client(verify=False), # custom transport
user_agent_suffix="my-app/2.3", # attribution
)
Raw modes (Playwright, curl, etc.)
from tierproxy import ProxyURL
p = ProxyURL(api_key="tp_live_...", country="US", mode="username_encoding")
print(p.http_url()) # http://customer-tp_live_...-cc-US:[email protected]:443
Error handling
Every SDK error inherits from tierproxy.TierProxyError and carries a
request_id for support escalation:
from tierproxy import TierProxy, RateLimitError
import time
with TierProxy() as g:
try:
resp = g.get("https://example.com/page")
except RateLimitError as e:
time.sleep(e.retry_after or 5)
resp = g.get("https://example.com/page")
See Errors reference for the full HTTP-status-to-exception mapping.
AI agent integration
The SDK exposes its response models as JSON Schema and as pre-built tool definitions for Anthropic Claude and OpenAI function-calling:
import anthropic
from tierproxy import TierProxy, schemas
with TierProxy() as gw:
anthropic.Anthropic().messages.create(
model="claude-sonnet-4-6",
max_tokens=1024,
tools=schemas.anthropic_tools(),
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "How much quota is left?"}],
)
See the AI integration guide
and the MCP server in
examples/mcp_claude_desktop.md.
How tierproxy compares
| tierproxy | Smartproxy SDK | Bright Data SDK | Oxylabs SDK | DataImpulse | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-provider routing | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Client-side smart selector (cost-aware) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Live usage streaming (SSE) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| MCP server (Claude/Cursor/Cline) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| OpenTelemetry built-in | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Sync + async parity | ✅ | partial | partial | partial | partial |
| AI/ML framework examples shipped | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Type-safe (Pydantic v2 + mypy strict) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | partial | ❌ |
| OpenAPI 3.1 spec | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
Pip-installable CLI (tierproxy doctor) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Per-request cost attribution (lazy) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| JA3/JA4 TLS fingerprint rotation | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Rate-limit learning + auto-failover | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| License | Apache 2.0 | proprietary | proprietary | proprietary | proprietary |
Features
- Five-second quickstart —
import tierproxy; tierproxy.get(url, country="US") - Layered API — five integration levels from one-liner to power-user knobs
- Smart routing —
routing="cheapest"auto-picks healthy upstream per request - Cost guardrails —
monthly_budget_usd=refuses requests that would exceed budget - Per-request cost attribution —
client.cost_for(resp)returns USD; lazy 30s cache, no per-request overhead - Client-side response caching —
cache_ttl=300, cache_max_response_size=262144LRU with size cap - Multi-provider auto-failover —
auto_failover=Trueretries with next-best upstream on 429/5xx - Rate-limit learning —
client.rate_limits.get()surfaces gateway-aggregated 429s per target domain - JA3/JA4 TLS rotation — per-upstream fingerprint randomization (gateway side; see tls-fingerprint guide)
- Cookie persistence — cookies stick to
session_idacross multi-step crawls - Streaming responses —
client.get(url, stream=True)returns iterator (large files, SSE) - Live SSE stream —
for delta in g.usage.stream()tails month-to-date bytes - MCP server —
tierproxy-mcpexposes proxy as tools to Claude/Cursor/Cline - 8 framework integrations — LangChain, LlamaIndex, Crawl4AI, Playwright, Firecrawl, Browser-Use, CrewAI
- OpenTelemetry opt-in —
pip install tierproxy[otel]for distributed tracing - Geo + sticky sessions — countries, cities, 1-1440min session pins
- Dual URL syntax — headers (httpx/requests) AND username-encoding (Playwright)
- Type-safe end-to-end — Pydantic v2 models, mypy strict, full IDE autocomplete
See examples/ for LangChain/LlamaIndex/Crawl4AI/Playwright and
examples/levels.py for a runnable demo of every level.
Use with your favorite AI/agent framework
| Framework | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| LangChain | with_langchain.py | RAG document loaders through proxy |
| LlamaIndex | with_llamaindex.py | SimpleWebPageReader through proxy |
| Crawl4AI | with_crawl4ai.py | Playwright crawler + tierproxy |
| Firecrawl (hot) | with_firecrawl.py | Self-hosted Firecrawl + residential IPs |
| Browser-Use (hot) | with_browser_use.py | LLM-driven autonomous browser |
| CrewAI (hot) | with_crewai.py | Multi-agent scraper crew + cost-aware routing |
| Playwright | with_playwright.py | Direct Playwright with tierproxy |
| MCP (Claude/Cursor/Cline/Windsurf) (unique) | mcp_claude_desktop.md | Native tool integration via tierproxy-mcp |
MCP server (Claude Desktop / Cursor / Cline / Windsurf)
pip install tierproxy[mcp]
Then add to your MCP client config:
{
"mcpServers": {
"tierproxy": {
"command": "tierproxy-mcp",
"env": { "TIERPROXY_API_KEY": "tp_live_..." }
}
}
}
Now your AI assistant can call fetch_url(url, country="US"), inspect health
and usage, and route through the cheapest healthy upstream — no glue code,
no httpx imports, no boilerplate.
Comments
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