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title: Introduction description: What GuardProxy is, the problem it solves, and who it's for. group: Getting Started order: 1

Introduction

GuardProxy is a hosted reverse proxy that turns any full-access API key into a read-only one — without changing how your code calls the API.

It sits between your AI agent, automation tool, or dashboard and the third-party API you're calling. Reads pass through untouched. Destructive writes are blocked at the network layer before they ever reach the upstream.

The problem

Most vendor APIs — ITGlue, Hudu, ConnectWise, Autotask, and many others — only issue admin-level keys. There's no read-only scope, no way to say "this key can only GET." The key you create inherits the full permissions of the account that made it.

That was fine when keys lived on trusted servers. Now they're handed to AI agents, third-party integrations, and automation scripts — every one of them effectively holding admin credentials. One hallucinated DELETE call from an AI agent, or one misconfigured integration, is enough to cause real damage.

How GuardProxy solves it

A method-level proxy intercepts every HTTP request and filters by verb:

GET, HEAD, OPTIONS   → forwarded to the upstream unchanged
POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE → blocked with 403 + logged

REST APIs use HTTP methods as verbs. GET means read. POST means create. DELETE means delete. By filtering at the method level, GuardProxy enforces read-only access without needing to understand any specific API's business logic.

You swap one URL in your tool's configuration. The API key passes through untouched — GuardProxy never stores or logs it.

Who it's for

• MSPs and IT teams giving AI agents or monitoring dashboards access to vendor APIs that lack scoped read-only keys.
• Developers building automation that should read data but never modify it.
• Security & compliance teams that need to enforce least-privilege access (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR) without rebuilding the upstream API.

What you need

• A vendor API key (the same admin key you already have — no new key required).
• A GuardProxy account. Sign up free for 14 days — no credit card required.

Ready? Continue to the Quickstart to proxy your first request in about a minute.