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A HackGATE site is a reverse proxy that sits in front of your application. When you create a site, HackGATE provisions a unique subdomain — for example, yourapp-yourorg.hackgate.net — and forwards all incoming researcher traffic to your origin URL. Your real application is never exposed directly to researchers.

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What is a HackGATE site

Each site maps one origin URL to one HackGATEd subdomain:
  • Origin (originName): your application’s URL, e.g. https://www.example.com
  • Proxy (hackgatedName): the HackGATE subdomain, e.g. www-myorg.hackgate.net
Researchers connect only to the proxy subdomain. HackGATE handles authentication, rate limiting, block rules, and traffic logging before any request reaches your origin.

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Site lifecycle

StateDescription
CreatingYou have submitted the origin URL. HackGATE is provisioning the proxy.
DeployingDeployment is in progress (isDeploymentProgress: true). The site is not yet reachable.
ActiveThe proxy is live (isActive: true). Researchers can connect.
DisabledThe proxy is offline (isActive: false). Requests return a default page. You can re-enable at any time.
After you create a site, all organization members receive an email. Deployment completes in approximately 4 minutes, at which point the site becomes active.

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Key site properties

PropertyDescription
originNameThe origin URL you provided when creating the site.
hackgatedNameThe auto-generated proxy subdomain on hackgate.net.
isActiveWhether the proxy is currently accepting researcher connections.
isDeploymentProgresstrue while the site is still being provisioned.
startDate / stopDateOptional scheduled times to automatically enable or disable the site.

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Activity log

HackGATE records an activity log for every site. Each entry contains a timestamp and one of three actions:
  • Deployed — the site finished provisioning and became available.
  • Started — the site was enabled (manually or via schedule).
  • Stopped — the site was disabled (manually or via schedule).

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Usage tracking

HackGATE tracks usage as the number of unique days in a given month that the site was active and received traffic. You can query this per site for any year and month.

Create a site

Deploy a proxied test environment by pointing HackGATE at your origin URL.

Enable and disable

Toggle your site on or off to control researcher access.

Scheduling

Automate start and stop times to define precise pentest windows.

Credentials and instructions

Provide researchers with login details and testing scope.

Hacker allowlist

Control which researchers can connect to your site.

Traffic analytics

Monitor researcher activity and API coverage across your environment.