503 even with USER_COOKIE

[sigmabeta]

I see in my docker container's log on startup:

INFO:vgmdb.autoload_settings:Loading USER_COOKIE from environ: vgmlastvisit=1754//etcetcetc// vgmsessionhash=//etc//cd75

However, all queries still return a 503 error:

127.0.0.1 - - [2026-03-30 18:38:27] "GET /search?q=nobuo+uematsu HTTP/1.0" 503 939 0.503746

Is it possible they've blocked this workaround, or did I do something wrong?

[hufman]

I"m unsure how the Cloudflare protection works, exactly. Does your cookie include the cf_clearance portion?
There should be other logs that show more details. I think the Docker container is forced to disable debug logging, but you could trying opening a shell inside the container and manually launching the /vgmdb/run.py command with the extra environment DEBUG=true

[sigmabeta]

It does include the cf_clearance k/v.

[kuvia]

My cookie contains cf_clearance twice, also if you put it inside your compose file, just put the whole cookie in there verbatim, no quotes etc.

[Icemasta]

With USER_COOKIE set, I can do searches but when I ask for album info, I get hit by a 403 when it pokes an album like https://vgmdb.net/album/12515 . So searching works with cookie, fetching actual metadata does not.

[kuvia]

I feel like the Cloudflare blocking has been more aggressive now. First, it also started matching user agents (and possibly IP), so I was able to get it back to work with a User Agent + Cookie combo but then that also only worked for a day or so.
I am heavily reliant on vgmdb to put music into my collection so I would add an API endpoint that allows setting both during runtime (and maybe a user script on browser side that calls it). It's an ugly hack but I don't see any other ways right now.