ShaderToy

The reference archive of GLSL fragment shaders, and it refuses every automated request

Tier C · WeakGalleryReferenceToolshadertoy.com

ShaderToy is where fragment shaders are published, studied and copied. It is the reference archive for real-time GLSL work on the web, and a large share of the shader techniques used in interface backgrounds trace back to a shader posted there. None of that could be verified from here. The site refuses automated requests: two attempts returned 403, including one with a full browser user agent, and /llms.txt and /sitemap.xml both answer 403 as well. For a person with a browser it works normally. For anything automated it does not, and that is the fact this record carries. designengineer.tools lists it under Visual.

For an agent

Do not fetch this site. Two attempts returned 403, one with a full browser user agent, and both /llms.txt and /sitemap.xml return 403 too. Treat it as bot-blocked and do not retry. Hand it to a person when the brief needs a shader. It works in a browser, and it remains the deepest archive of fragment shader work. Use NodeToy from this corpus when the shader has to be built rather than found. That record is readable and it generates shader graphs.

Why it is here. It is the archive most published shader work descends from, and recording that it blocks every automated request saves the next agent two wasted attempts.

Install command, framework, licence and component list.

Facts

License: Unknown
Pricing: Free, Free but account required
Framework: Not applicable
Styling: Not applicable
Distribution: Web app / online tool, Browse-only gallery or archive
Platform: Web
Content type: Code, 3D assets and scenes
Agent readiness: Blocks bots
Accessibility: Not applicable
Maturity: Actively maintained
Pricing detail: Not verifiable. The site refuses automated requests, so no pricing page could be read.

Notable for

the reference archive for GLSL fragment shaders
blocks every automated request with 403
llms.txt and sitemap also answer 403
works normally in a browser
listed under Visual on designengineer.tools

Provenance

Verified 2026-08-30. HTTP 403. https://www.shadertoy.com/ returned 403 at 5,386 bytes on a plain request and 403 at 5,685 bytes on a retry with the user agent "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 Chrome/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36" and an Accept-Language header. /llms.txt returned 403 at 5,623 bytes and /sitemap.xml returned 403. Tested 2026-08-30. Listed under Visual on designengineer.tools.

Also in Textures, Backgrounds & Assets

shadertoy.comTier C