PacketStream Documentation

Connect to PacketStream, verify a residential exit, and choose the right targeting and session behavior for your application.

PacketStream works with standard proxy-capable HTTP clients and browsers. Start with the recommended HTTPS gateway, authenticate with your dashboard username and auth key, and verify the observed exit before connecting a larger workload.

Before you begin

You need:

a PacketStream account;
your proxy username and auth key from the dashboard;
a client with HTTPS proxy support;
jq if you want the formatted output used below.

Keep credentials out of source control, screenshots, and application logs. The shell prompts below keep the values out of the command itself.

1. Load your credentials

read -r -p 'PacketStream username: ' PACKETSTREAM_USER
read -r -s -p 'PacketStream auth key: ' PACKETSTREAM_AUTH_KEY
printf '\n'
export PACKETSTREAM_USER PACKETSTREAM_AUTH_KEY

These variables last for the current shell session unless you deliberately persist them.

2. Send a request through HTTPS

curl --silent --show-error --fail-with-body \
  --proxy 'https://proxy.packetstream.io:31111' \
  --proxy-user "${PACKETSTREAM_USER}:${PACKETSTREAM_AUTH_KEY}" \
  'https://ipinfo.io' \
  | jq '{ip, hostname, city, region, country, loc, org, postal, timezone}'

A successful response confirms that the client reached PacketStream, authenticated, connected to the destination, and returned data through a residential exit.

IP location data is approximate. Use it as a diagnostic signal rather than a precise physical location.

3. Choose request behavior

The default auth key uses automatic rotation: PacketStream selects a residential exit for each new proxy connection. Your HTTP client may reuse a connection for multiple requests.

Add modifiers to the auth key when a workflow needs more control:

AUTH_KEY_country-US
AUTH_KEY_session-workflow42
AUTH_KEY_country-US_session-workflow42

_country-US requests an exit in the United States using an ISO two-letter country code.
_session-workflow42 requests the same exit for a related workflow for up to 60 minutes.
If a requested country has no available exits, the request fails instead of using another country.
If the Packeter serving a sticky session disconnects, that session fails.

4. Move the configuration into your client

The endpoint and credentials stay the same across supported clients. See language integrations for Python, Node.js, Go, and Playwright examples.

Endpoints & authenticationChoose HTTPS, SOCKS5, or compatibility HTTP. Rotation & sticky sessionsAlign connections and sessions with your unit of work. Country targetingRequest a country and handle unavailable exits. TroubleshootingDiagnose authentication, targeting, and connection failures.

Production checklist

Before scaling a workload:

keep credentials in a secret manager or protected environment variables;
set connection and overall request timeouts;
make retries bounded and observable;
verify country targeting when location affects the result;
understand whether the client pools proxy connections;
avoid logging proxy URLs that contain credentials;
test with a small, representative workload first.

PacketStream does not require inbound ports or port forwarding from proxy customers. Your application makes an outbound connection to the proxy gateway.