GitHub - mondaycom/HATCHA: CAPTCHA proves you're human. HATCHA proves you're not.

CAPTCHA proves you're human. HATCHA proves you're not.

HATCHA (Hyperfast Agent Test for Computational Heuristic Assessment) is a reverse CAPTCHA that gates access behind challenges trivial for AI agents but painful for humans — large-number multiplication, string reversal, binary decoding, and more.

Server-side verification — answers never reach the client. HMAC-signed tokens, stateless, no database required.
5 built-in challenge types — math, string reversal, character counting, sorting, binary decode.
Extensible — register custom challenge generators at runtime.
Themeable — dark, light, or auto mode via CSS custom properties.
Framework adapters — Next.js App Router and Express middleware out of the box.

Quickstart (Next.js)

1. Install

npm install @mondaycom/hatcha-react @mondaycom/hatcha-server

2. Add the API route

// app/api/hatcha/[...hatcha]/route.ts
import { createHatchaHandler } from "@mondaycom/hatcha-server/nextjs";

const handler = createHatchaHandler({
  secret: process.env.HATCHA_SECRET!,
});

export const GET = handler;
export const POST = handler;

3. Wrap your layout

// app/layout.tsx
import { HatchaProvider } from "@mondaycom/hatcha-react";
import "@mondaycom/hatcha-react/styles.css";

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <html lang="en">
      <body>
        <HatchaProvider>{children}</HatchaProvider>
      </body>
    </html>
  );
}

4. Trigger verification

"use client";
import { useHatcha } from "@mondaycom/hatcha-react";

function AgentModeButton() {
  const { requestVerification } = useHatcha();

  return (
    <button
      onClick={() =>
        requestVerification((token) => {
          console.log("Agent verified!", token);
        })
      }
    >
      Enter Agent Mode
    </button>
  );
}

5. Set your secret

# .env.local
HATCHA_SECRET=your-random-secret-here

How it works

Client                            Server
  │                                 │
  │  GET /api/hatcha/challenge      │
  │────────────────────────────────►│
  │                                 │  Generate challenge
  │                                 │  Hash answer
  │                                 │  HMAC-sign { hash, expiry }
  │  { challenge (no answer), token }
  │◄────────────────────────────────│
  │                                 │
  │  Agent solves the challenge     │
  │                                 │
  │  POST /api/hatcha/verify        │
  │  { answer, token }              │
  │────────────────────────────────►│
  │                                 │  Verify HMAC signature
  │                                 │  Check expiry
  │                                 │  Compare answer hash
  │  { success, verificationToken } │
  │◄────────────────────────────────│

The answer never reaches the client. The signed token is opaque and contains only a hashed answer + expiry. Verification is stateless — no database needed.

Challenge types

Type	Icon	What it does	Time limit
`math`	×	5-digit × 5-digit multiplication	30 s
`string`	↔	Reverse a 60–80 character random string	30 s
`count`	#	Count a specific character in ~250 characters	30 s
`sort`	⇅	Sort 15 numbers, return the k-th smallest	30 s
`binary`	01	Decode binary octets to ASCII	30 s

Custom challenges

import { registerChallenge } from "@mondaycom/hatcha-server";

registerChallenge({
  type: "hex",
  generate() {
    const n = Math.floor(Math.random() * 0xffffff);
    return {
      display: {
        type: "hex",
        icon: "0x",
        title: "Hex Decode",
        description: "Convert this hex number to decimal.",
        prompt: `0x${n.toString(16).toUpperCase()}`,
        timeLimit: 30,
        answer: String(n),
      },
      answer: String(n),
    };
  },
});

Theming

HATCHA uses CSS custom properties scoped under --hatcha-*. Override them on any parent element:

[data-hatcha-theme] {
  --hatcha-accent: #3b82f6;
  --hatcha-accent-light: #60a5fa;
  --hatcha-bg: #060b18;
  --hatcha-fg: #e4eaf6;
  --hatcha-success: #22c55e;
  --hatcha-danger: #ef4444;
}

Pass theme="dark", theme="light", or theme="auto" to <HatchaProvider> or <Hatcha>.

Express

import express from "express";
import { hatchaRouter } from "@mondaycom/hatcha-server/express";

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());
app.use("/api/hatcha", hatchaRouter({ secret: process.env.HATCHA_SECRET! }));

app.listen(3000);

Packages

Package	Description
`@mondaycom/hatcha-core`	Challenge generation and cryptographic verification
`@mondaycom/hatcha-react`	React component, provider, and styles
`@mondaycom/hatcha-server`	Next.js and Express server handlers

Development

git clone https://github.com/mondaycom/HATCHA.git
cd HATCHA
pnpm install
pnpm build
cd examples/nextjs-app
pnpm dev

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions and guidelines.

License

MIT

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