Preview mode

Verification only passes when a visitor actually clears the check, which is slow and flaky while you are still wiring up your front-end and your /siteverify backend. Preview mode removes that friction: turn it on for a site key and every verification is approved automatically, while the widget still shows exactly what a real visitor would see. It is a development and integration aid, and it turns bot protection off for the key while it is on, so it is not for production.

What it does

Preview mode is a toggle on a site key's Security page. When it is on:

• The key still serves its normal experience: the quiet background check, and the game and its full screen if you require a game. Preview mode does not hide or skip anything the visitor would see in production.
• The backend approves every verification regardless of how the visitor plays. The game is not replayed for a verdict and the proof of work is not enforced, so /siteverify returns success every time.
• Sessions are still recorded. Each one is marked Preview in the session log, so your dashboard and stats fill with real data and preview traffic is never mistaken for a genuine human pass.

Because the approval happens on our side and not in the browser, you get real sessions and real statistics. A client that faked a pass would produce neither.

When to use it

• Building your integration. Wire the widget into your form and your backend's /siteverify call, and confirm the whole round-trip works before your challenge is final.
• Demos. Show the real widget and game to a stakeholder with a guaranteed pass, no solving required.

Do not leave it on in production: while it is on, anyone (including a bot) passes. Turn it off before you go live.

Turn it on

In the dashboard, open the site key and go to Security → Preview mode. It is available two ways:

• Per site key. Toggle it on for one key while you work on that integration.
• As a troop default. Set it on the troop's Security page and every site key inherits it, unless a key overrides it. A key can turn it on even when the troop default is off, or off even when the default is on.

The card warns you while it is on, because the key has no bot protection in that state.

Preview mode and the Proxy page-gate

Preview mode is the same idea (observe and pass, never enforce) applied wherever a key protects something. For the plain widget it approves verification, as described above. For the Proxy page-gate, the same toggle runs the gate in monitor-only mode: the gate records what it would have done to each request but lets every request through, so you can confirm your reverse-proxy wiring before it blocks a single real visitor. It is one setting with one meaning across both surfaces.

See also

• Security for the page the toggle lives on, and the rest of a key's protection.
• Statistics and sessions to see where preview sessions are listed and marked.
• Set up the Proxy page-gate for the same toggle on the gate side, in monitor-only mode.