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What are Webshare Skills?

An overview of Webshare Skills: what each Skill does, what you need to use them, how to install them, and how to fix common problems.

Webshare Skills are ready-made workflows you add to an AI agent, such as Claude Code. Instead of working out which commands to run, the agent follows a workflow for a specific task.

Skills are part of the Integrations section, alongside Webshare MCP. Most Skills use the Webshare CLI. Only Proxy Optimizer needs Webshare MCP, and only for replacing proxies.

Before you start: you'll need a Webshare account and an AI agent that supports Agent Skills, such as Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot CLI.

Which Skill should I use?

I want to...

Use

Manage my account, export proxies, or build proxy URLs

Proxy Manager

Find and fix blocked proxies on a specific website

Proxy Optimizer

Build a web scraper that uses Webshare proxies

Scraper

Find ways to lower my costs

Spend Audit

Proxy Manager

Manages your Webshare account and proxies in plain language, through the Webshare CLI.

It can:

  • List your proxies and save them to a file

  • Build proxy URLs with country targeting and sticky sessions

  • Manage your IP authorizations

  • Change your proxy settings

  • Check your plans, usage, and failed requests

  • Refresh a blocked proxy list (this replaces the whole list and uses one of your on-demand refreshes)

  • Open a pre-filled checkout page when you need more proxies

Good to know: It asks before anything that changes your account. Checkout always finishes in your browser. Proxy lists include each proxy's username and password, so your AI agent can see them.

It can't: replace individual proxies (Proxy Optimizer does that) or do scraping.

Try asking:

  • "List my Webshare proxies and save them to proxies.txt."

  • "Authorize this machine's IP so my tools can use proxies without credentials."

  • "Give me five sticky-session US proxy URLs for a worker pool."

  • "What failed in my proxy traffic over the last hour?"

  • "Refresh my proxy list. Too many IPs are getting blocked."

  • "Buy 100 more dedicated datacenter proxies."

Proxy Optimizer

Finds and fixes proxy problems for a specific website.

How it works:

  1. It tests your proxies against the site.

  2. It shows which ones are blocked and where the failures cluster by country, ASN, and subnet.

  3. Before replacing anything, it previews the change and asks you to confirm.

  4. It replaces only the blocked ones.

  5. Afterward, it tests again to check the fix.

Good to know: Replacements use your replacement credits and can't be undone.

It can't: refresh your whole proxy list, or test Rotating Residential pools one IP at a time.

In Claude Code, you can run it with /proxy-optimizer followed by the site address.

Try asking:

  • "My proxies keep failing on example.com. Figure out which ones and fix it."

  • "Optimize my proxy pool for https://www.example.com."

  • "Which of my proxies are blocked on this site, grouped by ASN?"

Scraper

Helps you build a web scraper that uses Webshare proxies.

How it works:

  1. It asks what you want to collect, whether you prefer Python or Node.js, whether to start a new project or just write a script, how to store the data (CSV, JSON, or SQLite), and whether to use stealth mode.

  2. It explores the site, writes a complete script with rotating Webshare proxies, and tests that it works.

Scrapers it creates send an X-Webshare-Source header that identifies the Skill.

It won't: bypass CAPTCHAs, scrape pages behind a login, or scrape in violation of a site's terms. Scraping behind a login is prohibited, so Scraper won't set up scripted logins, cookies or authenticated sessions.

Try asking:

  • "Scrape the product names and prices from this category page."

  • "Build me a Python scraper for this site with stealth mode and CSV output."

  • "Set up a new scraping project for collecting job listings."

Spend Audit

Reviews your Webshare usage and looks for ways to lower your costs without affecting your workload. It looks at the last 90 days by default and checks for:

  • Countries holding proxies you barely use

  • Idle plans

  • Oversized bandwidth or proxy counts

  • Unused refreshes and replacements

  • Plans billed monthly that would be cheaper yearly

It saves a report in a webshare-audits folder. It's read-only: it recommends changes and never makes them.

Good to know: It can't price a new configuration, so for those suggestions it links to the dashboard's customize page, where you can see the quote.

Try asking:

  • "Audit my Webshare spend and tell me where I'm wasting money."

  • "Are any of my proxy plans oversized for what I actually use?"

  • "Would switching my Webshare plans to yearly billing save money?"

  • "Run the monthly proxy spend audit."

What you need

  • Proxy Manager and Spend Audit: the Webshare CLI and an API key.

  • Proxy Optimizer: the Webshare CLI, an API key, and Python 3.10 or later. For the replacement step only, it also needs Webshare MCP connected with the Proxies Write permission ticked, and a paid plan with replacement credits.

  • Scraper: the Playwright MCP (a separate tool, not Webshare MCP) and a Python or Node.js runtime. It also uses the Webshare proxies on your account, which the CLI or Proxy Manager can supply to the script.

The CLI install and sign-in steps are in How can I use the Webshare CLI?. Installing Skills also needs Node.js, because the install command uses npx.

Install a Skill

  1. Install the Webshare CLI and set your API key (not required for Scraper).

  2. Run the command for the Skill you want:

    • Proxy Manager: npx skills add webshare-proxy/skills --skill proxy-manager

    • Proxy Optimizer: npx skills add webshare-proxy/skills --skill proxy-optimizer

    • Scraper: npx skills add webshare-proxy/skills --skill scraper

    • Spend Audit: npx skills add webshare-proxy/skills --skill spend-audit

Using Claude Code? You can install the full catalog and use every Skill as a slash command. Run /plugin marketplace add webshare-proxy/skills, then /plugin install webshare@webshare.

This also connects Webshare MCP. You sign in with your Webshare account the first time it's used.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

  • "webshare" command not found: install the Webshare CLI.

  • WEBSHARE_API_KEY isn't set: set it with a key from Integrations → API Keys.

  • Proxy Optimizer says "No active plan found": your account has no plan with an active status. A free plan is enough to test your proxies. Replacing them needs a paid plan.

  • webshare proxies list returns nothing on a Rotating Residential plan: add --mode backbone, or use webshare proxy-url.

  • Proxy Optimizer says you have 0 replacement credits: replacing proxies uses replacement credits, which come with paid plans. See Manual Proxy Replacement for more details.

  • Proxy Optimizer says every proxy times out: the site may block datacenter IPs. Try residential proxies.

  • The replacement step fails: check that Webshare MCP is connected (in Claude Code, run claude mcp list) and that you ticked the Proxies Write permission when you connected it. To change permissions, disconnect it under Integrations → Connected Apps and connect it again. The CLI alone can't replace individual proxies.

  • Scraper: the site blocks access: turn on stealth mode. If it hits a CAPTCHA, it can't bypass it. Avoid triggering CAPTCHAs where possible, or solve them manually. If the page requires a login, Scraper can't be used for it: scraping behind a login is prohibited.

Learn more

Skills are open source at https://github.com/webshare-proxy/skills.

Need Assistance?

If you have any questions or need further assistance, our Customer Support team is here to help! Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

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