For Sacha Servan-Schreiber, co-founder of Tinfoil (YC X25), choosing a scraping API started with a privacy requirement. His team needed web content and metadata for a privacy-preserving web search agent, and zero data retention was central to the decision.
Tinfoil switched from Zyte to Context.dev for its zero data retention (ZDR) offering. Getting an API key and having a coding agent set up the integration took Sacha less than five minutes.
What is Tinfoil?
Tinfoil builds private AI products and infrastructure, including chat, an inference API, and secure containers for applications. Privacy is the reason its products exist, so the services supporting them need to fit that requirement too.
Sacha was looking for a scraping and metadata API to use in Tinfoil's web search agent. The challenge was finding one with a clear data retention policy that met the team's needs.
Zero data retention drove the switch
Sacha found Context.dev while evaluating options for that workflow:
"Almost nobody offers ZDR policies and so I decided to give Context.dev a try when I saw that they had a clear and comprehensive ZDR offering."
Tinfoil already used Zyte. Context.dev's ZDR offering gave the team a reason to move:
"We used Zyte before, but switched to Context.dev due to the ZDR offering."
For Tinfoil, the decision brought scraping and metadata into the search agent through a provider whose retention offering matched what Sacha was looking for.
From API key to integration in under five minutes
Once Sacha decided to try Context.dev, the onboarding screen gave him an API key and instructions for integration. His coding agent handled the setup.
"It took me less than 5 minutes to get an API key and have my agent set everything up. It worked flawlessly on the first try and the quality of the results was perfect."
The onboarding flow made the next step clear:
"The onboarding screen providing me with an API key and instructions for integration made things super easy."
Sacha also appreciated the SDKs, which made the integration cleaner:
"I was blown away by the ease with which I was able to integrate everything and appreciate the SDKs they offer since it makes the integration much cleaner. 11/10 experience."
The outcome
Tinfoil found the retention offering it needed and an integration that worked on the first attempt. Sacha highlighted four benefits:
- Zero data retention: the reason Tinfoil chose Context.dev and switched from Zyte.
- Setup in under five minutes: from getting an API key to having an agent complete the integration.
- Results that met expectations immediately: Sacha described the first run as flawless and the result quality as perfect.
- Cleaner integration through SDKs: a developer experience he rated "11/10."
Building an agent that needs web content? Explore Context.dev's web tools and the quickstart.
Looking for private AI? Explore Tinfoil.