Synthient

High-fidelity data on residential proxies, VPNs, and other anonymized IPs.

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synthient-php

synthient-php is the official PHP SDK for the Synthient API: IP and domain intelligence, account details, and real-time and bulk data feeds.

Table of Contents

• synthient-php
  • SDK Installation
  • Requirements
  • API Keys
  • Authentication
  • SDK Example Usage
  • Available Resources and Operations
  • Streaming
  • Pagination
  • Downloads
  • Retries
  • Timeouts
  • Error Handling
  • Server Selection
  • Custom HTTP Client
  • Debugging
  • gRPC Schema
• Development
  • Maturity
  • Contributions
  • License

SDK Installation

composer require synthient/synthient-php

Composer also installs Guzzle, which the SDK uses to send requests.

Requirements

PHP 8.3 or later on a 64-bit build, with Guzzle 7.15.2 or later or 8.0.1 or later. With the default HTTP client, streams and downloads go through Guzzle's PHP stream handler, which needs the allow_url_fopen ini setting. It is on by default.

API Keys

Every request needs a Synthient API key. Keys are issued from the Synthient dashboard; if you don't have one, contact us. A key's scopes decide what it can call: BASIC covers the lookups and account(), and each feed has its own scopes, listed under Feeds.

If a request fails even though you are sending a key:

• 401 Unauthorized: the key is malformed, unknown, or revoked.
• 402 Payment Required: the team is out of lookup credits.
• 403 Forbidden: the key lacks the scope for that endpoint or feed.

account() shows the key's scopes and the team's remaining credits.

Authentication

This SDK supports the following security scheme:

Name	Type	Scheme	Environment Variable
apiKey	API key	x-api-key header	SYNTHIENT_API_KEY

With no arguments, the client reads SYNTHIENT_API_KEY. To use a key from a secret manager, pass it as apiKey:

$client = new Synthient\Client(); // reads SYNTHIENT_API_KEY

$client = new Synthient\Client(apiKey: $apiKey);

The constructor makes no network calls. To check a key, call account(), which costs no credits.

SDK Example Usage

Look up an IP address

Get the network, location, and risk intelligence for an IPv4 or IPv6 address. Each lookup costs one credit; failed lookups are free.

<?php

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

$client = new Synthient\Client();

$info = $client->lookupIp('8.8.8.8');
if ($info->intelligence !== null) {
    echo $info->intelligence->riskScore, ' ', implode(', ', $info->intelligence->categories), "\n";
}

network, location, and intelligence are null when the API has no data for them. The examples below reuse $client, and runnable programs are in examples.

Look up many IP addresses

Look up as many as 1000 addresses in one request for ceil(n * 0.9) credits. Private and reserved addresses are skipped and duplicates are merged, so match results by their canonical ip, such as 2001:4860:4860::8888.

foreach ($client->lookupIps(['8.8.8.8', '1.1.1.1']) as $result) {
    if ($result->intelligence !== null) {
        echo $result->ip, ' ', $result->intelligence->riskScore, "\n";
    }
}

Look up a domain

Get the honeypot traffic observed for a domain and its most recent events. Each lookup costs one credit.

$domain = $client->lookupDomain('example.com', limit: 10);
echo $domain->status, ' ', $domain->stats->events24h, "\n";
foreach ($domain->recentEvents as $event) {
    echo $event->timestamp->format(DATE_ATOM), ' ', $event->targetSubdomain, ' ', $event->port, "\n";
}

Check your account

Get the key's account, scopes, and remaining lookup credits, at no cost.

$account = $client->account();
echo $account->organization->name, ' ', implode(', ', $account->scopes), ' ', $account->lookupQuota->credits, "\n";

Available Resources and Operations

Available methods

Client

• lookupIp - Look up an IPv4 or IPv6 address
• lookupIps - Look up as many as 1000 addresses in one request
• lookupDomain - Look up the honeypot traffic observed for a domain
• account - Get the key's account, scopes, and remaining lookup credits
• health - Check that the API and its dependencies are healthy

Feeds

Each feed is a property of the client, such as $client->proxies, and has the same methods:

• stream - Connect to the feed's real-time events
• listExports - List one page of the feed's Parquet exports, newest first
• allExports - Iterate over every export, fetching pages as needed
• exportMeta - Get an export's checksum, size, row count, and Parquet schema
• download - Open an export's Parquet file for reading
• downloadUrl - Get a presigned URL for an export's Parquet file, valid for 24 hours

Property	Data	Event class	Stream scope	Export scope
proxies	Residential, mobile, and datacenter proxies	ProxyEvent	PROXY_FIREHOSE	PROXY_FEEDS
anonymizers	VPN and anonymizer IP ranges	AnonymizerEvent	ANONYMIZERS_STREAM	ANONYMIZERS_FEED
torrents	BitTorrent DHT and tracker peers	TorrentEvent	TORRENTS_STREAM	TORRENTS_FEED
ja4t	JA4T TCP fingerprints	Ja4tEvent	JA4T_STREAM	JA4T_FEED
heliosHttp	Helios honeypot HTTP requests	HeliosHttpEvent	HONEYPOT_HTTP_STREAM	HONEYPOT_HTTP_FEED
heliosHttps	Helios honeypot TLS ClientHellos	HeliosHttpsEvent	HONEYPOT_HTTPS_STREAM	HONEYPOT_HTTPS_FEED
heliosDns	Helios honeypot tunnel destinations	HeliosDnsEvent	HONEYPOT_DNS_STREAM	HONEYPOT_DNS_FEED
heliosAdb	Helios honeypot Android Debug Bridge commands	HeliosAdbEvent	HONEYPOT_ADB_STREAM	HONEYPOT_ADB_FEED

The event classes are in the Synthient\Event namespace, and the scope names are constants of Synthient\Enum\Scope.

Streaming

stream() connects to a feed's real-time events and returns an EventStream to iterate once. Close it in a finally block to release the connection:

use Synthient\Exception\ApiException;
use Synthient\Exception\SynthientException;

while (true) {
    try {
        $events = $client->proxies->stream();
        try {
            foreach ($events as $event) {
                echo $event->ip, ' ', $event->provider, ' ', $event->type, "\n";
            }
        } finally {
            $events->close();
        }
    } catch (SynthientException $e) {
        fwrite(STDERR, "proxy stream: {$e->getMessage()}\n");
        if ($e instanceof ApiException && in_array($e->statusCode, [401, 403], true)) {
            break;
        }
        // Avoid reconnecting in a tight loop.
        sleep(2);
    }
}

• The server closes each stream after up to 30 minutes. That ends the inner loop without an error, and the outer loop reconnects at once.
• A 401 or 403 stops the loop, because reconnecting can't fix a rejected key or a missing scope.
• Any other failure throws a SynthientException, and the loop waits 2 seconds before reconnecting.
• Events sent while disconnected are missed. The API has no resume cursor.

Pagination

listExports() returns one page of a feed's exports, newest first. Pass $page->nextCursor as cursor to get the next page; it is null or empty on the last one.

$page = $client->proxies->listExports(limit: 50);
foreach ($page->exports as $export) {
    echo $export->id, ' ', $export->kind, ' ', $export->rowCount, "\n";
}

allExports() fetches the pages for you as the loop needs them:

foreach ($client->proxies->allExports() as $export) {
    echo $export->id, ' ', $export->kind, ' ', $export->rowCount, "\n";
}

On the first page, the newest hourly export has the ID 'latest', a moving alias for the freshest export. Its date and hour give its stable ID, such as '2026-10-14/21'.

Downloads

Exports are Parquet files. download() returns a file's contents as a PSR-7 stream, which you must close:

$id = (new DateTimeImmutable('yesterday', new DateTimeZone('UTC')))->format('Y-m-d');
$body = $client->proxies->download($id);
$file = fopen('proxies.parquet', 'wb') ?: throw new RuntimeException('cannot open proxies.parquet');
$hash = hash_init('sha256');
try {
    while (!$body->eof()) {
        $chunk = $body->read(1 << 20);
        if (fwrite($file, $chunk) !== strlen($chunk)) {
            throw new RuntimeException('cannot write proxies.parquet');
        }
        hash_update($hash, $chunk);
    }
} finally {
    $body->close();
    fclose($file);
}
if (!hash_equals($client->proxies->exportMeta($id)->checksum, hash_final($hash))) {
    throw new RuntimeException('proxies.parquet does not match the export checksum');
}

• Name an export by its id from a listing, by 'latest', by a UTC day or hour as 'YYYY-MM-DD' or 'YYYY-MM-DD/H', or by a DateTimeInterface for its UTC day.
• A connection that closes early can end a download without an error, so compare the file's SHA-256 with exportMeta()'s checksum, as above. Use a fixed ID for both calls, because 'latest' can move between them.
• downloadUrl() returns a presigned URL that works without a key for 24 hours, so treat it as a secret. Your API key is never sent to the storage host.
• Hourly exports roll into the daily export shortly after 00:30 UTC the next day. After that, the hour returns a 400.

Retries

The client retries a failed request up to twice, backing off exponentially with jitter and honoring Retry-After:

Requests	Retried on
Account and feed requests	500, 502, 503, and 504, most transport errors, and 429 with Retry-After
Billed lookups and health()	Only 429 with Retry-After, which comes before any work, so a lookup is never charged twice

A 429 without Retry-After means the monthly request budget is spent or too many streams are open, so it is thrown at once. Downloads from the storage host are never retried.

Set the number of retries with maxRetries. Zero disables them:

$client = new Synthient\Client(maxRetries: 4);

Timeouts

The client waits up to 10 seconds (connectTimeout) to connect and up to 60 seconds (timeout) for each attempt's response. Both are in seconds:

$client = new Synthient\Client(connectTimeout: 5.0, timeout: 30.0);

• On a stream or download, timeout bounds each wait for the next data, not the whole transfer. The API sends a stream keepalive about every 15 seconds.
• Guzzle's PHP stream handler, which serves streams, downloads, and every request without the cURL extension, ignores connectTimeout and waits up to timeout to connect.

Error Handling

A request that fails with a non-success status throws a Synthient\Exception\ApiException:

Property	Type	Description
statusCode	int	HTTP status code, such as 404
type	?string	URI identifying the problem type
title	?string	Short summary of the problem type
detail	?string	Explanation of this occurrence
errors	array<string, list<string>>	Validation messages by request field
requestId	?string	Request ID to give Synthient support
retryAfter	?int	Seconds the server asked you to wait, or null
headers	string[][]	The response headers

getMessage() returns only the HTTP status, so it is safe to log. The other properties hold untrusted server data.

Example

use Synthient\Exception\ApiException;

try {
    $info = $client->lookupIp('8.8.8.8');
    echo $info->ip, "\n";
} catch (ApiException $e) {
    if ($e->statusCode === 402) {
        echo "out of lookup credits\n";
    } elseif ($e->statusCode === 429 && $e->retryAfter !== null) {
        echo "rate limited, retry after {$e->retryAfter} seconds\n";
    } elseif ($e->statusCode === 429) {
        echo "monthly request budget spent\n";
    } else {
        echo "request {$e->requestId} failed: ", $e->detail ?? $e->title, "\n";
    }
}

Error Types

All of these are in the Synthient\Exception namespace and extend SynthientException:

• ApiException: the API, or the storage host during download(), returned a non-success status.
• ConnectionException: a network failure stopped the request.
• TimeoutException: a ConnectionException for a connection, response, or read that took longer than the timeout.
• SynthientException: the base class, also thrown for a response that can't be decoded.

Invalid arguments, such as a missing API key or a malformed IP address, throw InvalidArgumentException before any request is sent.

Status codes

Status	Meaning
400	The request is invalid, such as an hourly export that was rolled up
401	The API key is malformed, unknown, or revoked
402	The team is out of lookup credits
403	The key lacks the scope for the endpoint or feed
404	The export doesn't exist, or a daily export is still rolling up (retryAfter is set)
422	The input is invalid, such as a private address or a malformed domain
429	Rate limited if retryAfter is set; otherwise the budget is spent or too many streams are open
5xx	The server failed

Server Selection

Override Server URL Per-Client

The default server is https://api.synthient.com/api/v4. Use baseUrl to send requests elsewhere, such as a mock server in tests:

$client = new Synthient\Client(baseUrl: 'http://localhost:8080/api/v4');

Custom HTTP Client

Pass your own GuzzleHttp\ClientInterface as httpClient, for example to use a proxy:

$client = new Synthient\Client(
    httpClient: new GuzzleHttp\Client(['proxy' => 'http://proxy.example.com:8080']),
);

• It keeps its defaults, such as proxy, verify, and cert, but the SDK sets allow_redirects, http_errors, stream, and the timeouts on every request. Export downloads drop its default headers, cookies, and auth.
• It must not retry requests, so a billed lookup is never sent twice. It must not set a default query either.
• Streams and downloads need a handler that streams response bodies. Guzzle's default does only when allow_url_fopen is on.
• Lookups and health() add CURLOPT_FRESH_CONNECT to its curl option, so a client that requires persistent cURL sharing can't send them.

userAgent: 'my-app/1.2' adds your product token to the User-Agent header.

Debugging

responseHook is called after every API response, including retries, pages, stream handshakes, and export redirects, with a Synthient\ResponseMetadata holding the status, request ID, rate limit, and headers:

$client = new Synthient\Client(responseHook: function (Synthient\ResponseMetadata $meta): void {
    error_log("status={$meta->statusCode} request_id={$meta->requestId}");
    if ($meta->rateLimit !== null) {
        error_log("rate limit: {$meta->rateLimit->remaining} of {$meta->rateLimit->limit} left");
    }
});

An exception the hook throws reaches your code.

Warning

Response headers can contain secrets, such as presigned download URLs. Avoid logging $meta->headers in production.

gRPC Schema

Unlike the other Synthient SDKs, this package has no gRPC schema fetcher, because PHP's gRPC support needs a compiled extension. To get the protobuf schema of the Synthient gRPC API, use another SDK's fetcher or a reflection client such as grpcurl:

grpcurl -H "x-api-key: $SYNTHIENT_API_KEY" -protoset-out synthient.protoset grpc.synthient.com:443 describe synthient.v1.SynthientService

-protoset-out writes the service and every message it uses to synthient.protoset as a FileDescriptorSet.

Development

Maturity

This SDK follows Semantic Versioning. Breaking changes ship only in a new major version, so the ^1.0 constraint that composer require adds accepts every compatible release.

Contributions

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome as GitHub issues. For questions about the API or your account, contact Synthient support.

License

Apache 2.0