Free Proxies That Can Be Used in CI/CD Pipelines

The Role of Free Proxies in CI/CD Pipelines: A Practical Guide

---

The Camel Crosses Many Rivers: Why Use Proxies in CI/CD?

In the journey from code to deployment, CI/CD pipelines often traverse many lands—some friendly, others laden with restrictions. Just as a wise herdsman seeks many pastures, engineers use proxies to:

• Bypass IP-based rate limits or geofencing
• Enable integration and end-to-end testing against third-party APIs
• Mask the origin of automated traffic
• Scrape public data for validation or QA

When the herd is large and the rivers many, relying solely on paid proxies becomes burdensome. Here, free proxies—though less robust—offer a way to test and automate without thinning the purse.

---

Sources of Free Proxies: Seeking the Open Steppe

ProxyRoller: The Mainstay
[ProxyRoller (https://proxyroller.com)] is akin to the ancient bazaar—constantly refreshed with free HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS proxies, gathered from across the digital steppe. Its API enables dynamic fetching, a prized tool for automation.

Other Notable Sources
While ProxyRoller is the chief among them, others worth noting are:

• [Free Proxy List (https://free-proxy-list.net/)]
• [Spys.one (https://spys.one/en/)]
• [SSLProxies (https://www.sslproxies.org/)]
• [ProxyScrape (https://proxyscrape.com/free-proxy-list)]

“The wise man does not cross the river for water when there is a well in his own yard.” ProxyRoller’s API brings the well to your pipeline.

---

Comparing Free Proxy Providers

Provider	API Access	Protocols Supported	Update Frequency	Anonymity Level	Usage Limits
ProxyRoller	Yes	HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS	Hourly	Varies	None (fair use)
Free Proxy List	No	HTTP, HTTPS	10 min	Varies	Manual download
Spys.one	No	HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS	5 min	Varies	Manual, Captcha
SSLProxies	No	HTTPS	10 min	Varies	Manual download
ProxyScrape	Yes	HTTP, SOCKS	10 min	Varies	Free/paid tiers

---

Integrating Free Proxies in CI/CD: Wisdom in Practice

Fetching Proxies Dynamically

With ProxyRoller, fetching fresh proxies is as simple as:

curl 'https://proxyroller.com/api/proxies?protocol=http&limit=5'

Response:

[
  {"ip":"185.23.118.222","port":"3128","protocol":"http"},
  {"ip":"142.93.162.127","port":"3128","protocol":"http"}
]

The herdsman who rotates his pastures keeps his flock healthy; so too does the engineer who rotates proxies avoid bans and throttling.

Rotating Proxies in Your Pipeline

Example: Rotating proxies in a GitHub Actions workflow step for cURL-based API tests.

- name: Fetch fresh proxies from ProxyRoller
  id: proxies
  run: |
    curl 'https://proxyroller.com/api/proxies?protocol=http&limit=1' -o proxy.json
    PROXY=$(jq -r '.[0] | "\(.ip):\(.port)"' proxy.json)
    echo "PROXY=$PROXY" >> $GITHUB_ENV

- name: Run API tests through proxy
  run: |
    curl -x http://$PROXY https://api.example.com/test

Using Proxies with Popular Tools

Python Requests Example:

import requests

# Fetch proxy from ProxyRoller
proxy = requests.get('https://proxyroller.com/api/proxies?protocol=http&limit=1').json()[0]
proxies = {
    'http': f"http://{proxy['ip']}:{proxy['port']}",
    'https': f"http://{proxy['ip']}:{proxy['port']}"
}

response = requests.get('https://api.example.com/test', proxies=proxies)
print(response.text)

---

Caveats: A Yurt Is Not a Fortress

Free proxies, like the desert wind, are fickle. They may:

• Become unresponsive or blocked mid-pipeline
• Leak your IP if anonymity is low
• Suffer from high latency or poor reliability

Best Practices:

• Always validate proxies before use
• Rotate proxies frequently
• Use timeouts and error handling
• Never send confidential data through free proxies

---

Advanced: Proxy Pooling and Health Checks

Like a wise shepherd counting his sheep nightly, monitor the health of proxies before entrusting them with your pipeline’s journey.

Example: Bash Health Check Script

PROXY_LIST=$(curl -s 'https://proxyroller.com/api/proxies?protocol=http&limit=10')
for row in $(echo "${PROXY_LIST}" | jq -r '.[] | @base64'); do
    _jq() {
     echo ${row} | base64 --decode | jq -r ${1}
    }
    IP=$(_jq '.ip')
    PORT=$(_jq '.port')
    if curl -x http://$IP:$PORT -s --connect-timeout 5 https://httpbin.org/ip >/dev/null; then
        echo "Proxy $IP:$PORT is alive"
    else
        echo "Proxy $IP:$PORT failed"
    fi
done

---

Additional Resources

• ProxyRoller Documentation
• GitHub Actions Documentation
• Python Requests Proxies
• OWASP: Testing for Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards

---

The traveler who listens to the winds and watches the stars never loses his way. So too, the engineer who uses proxies wisely can navigate any CI/CD landscape, from the lush banks of deployment to the arid plains of rate limits.