---
name: chip-fetcher-site-digikey
description: >-
  How chip-fetcher navigates DigiKey for a chip's CAD models — and the recovery
  playbook for when DigiKey BLOCKS pup automation (its anti-bot trips
  periodically and serves a challenge/block page instead of the product page).
  Read before a DigiKey fetch, and especially when a DigiKey fetch returns a
  block/challenge instead of the part. Trigger words: digikey, digikey blocked,
  digikey captcha, digikey anti-bot, digikey challenge page, digikey cad,
  digikey step, digikey 3d model, digikey access denied, digikey verify human.
---

# Site: DigiKey

DigiKey carries manufacturer CAD (ECAD model via SnapEDA/SamacSys, 3D STEP) on the
product page. It's a useful rung — **when it lets us in**. DigiKey runs aggressive
bot detection that changes without notice, so the "when it breaks" section here is
the main event.

## Reach
- Search: `https://www.digikey.com/en/products/result?keywords=<MPN>`
- Or product page directly once the DigiKey part number is known.

## Gate
- No login needed for CAD download, but the page is region/cookie-gated and
  bot-screened. Use the persistent pup profile so cookies + a warmed session
  carry over.

## Download flow
1. On the product page, scroll to **Documents & Media** / **CAD Models**.
2. The ECAD model is a SnapEDA/SamacSys embed → may redirect to a partner login;
   the 3D STEP is usually a direct link.
3. Download lands as a `.zip` or `.step` in Downloads; chip-fetcher pulls + unpacks.

## Catch
- Same as the other rungs: pull off the desktop, normalize into `library/<MPN>/`.

## When it breaks — DigiKey blocks pup

**Signature:** instead of the product page you get an "Access Denied",
"verify you are human", a Cloudflare/Akamai interstitial, or an endless spinner.
The page title and a screenshot will show the challenge, not the part.

**Do NOT** try to defeat the challenge programmatically (no CAPTCHA solving, no
header spoofing to look like a different bot). That's the wrong kind of fix and
it's explicitly out of scope (see `../../CONTRIBUTING.md` → Security).

**The right plays, in order:**
1. **Use a warm human profile.** Drive DigiKey in a pup profile the user actually
   browses with — real cookies, real history. A cold automation profile trips the
   screen far more often. Pace actions like a human (no instant clicks).
2. **Ask DigiKey's own assistant.** DigiKey has an on-site chat/AI. Navigating *to
   the model* via the path it hands you often avoids the screened URL entirely.
   (This is exactly how a 3rd party first got past a fresh block — and then
   wrote it up here.)
3. **Skip the rung.** DigiKey is mid-ladder, not the only source. If it's blocking,
   fall to Arrow / CSE-UL rather than fighting it — the part's model is usually
   reachable elsewhere.
4. **Capture what worked and publish it.** If you find a current path through,
   update this section and ship it (`../../CONTRIBUTING.md`). The block changes
   monthly; the freshest skill wins. A fast-moving vendor like this is the textbook
   case for the **linked-external-skill** path so the owner can update it the hour
   it changes.