WurflRTD for Prebid.js
Bid Stream Enrichment for Prebid.js — Accurate Device Signals in the OpenRTB Bid Request, at the
Moment of Auction
The OpenRTB device object that SSPs and DSPs rely on is increasingly unreliable. User-agent strings are being truncated, reduced, or spoofed, and by the time a bid request reaches the bidder, the device signal has often been misclassified by intermediaries. WurflRTD fixes this at the source — inside Prebid.js, before the auction starts — so every downstream system works from a device signal it can actually trust. Privacy-safe by design: we identify devices, not people.
WurflRTD: Real-Time Data Module for Prebid.js
WurflRTD is an officially approved Prebid.js Real-Time Data provider, maintained in the core Prebid.js repository. When a publisher installs it, every bid request leaving their pages carries accurate, structured device intelligence — form factor, model, hardware generation, and the full set
of WURFL capabilities — in the OpenRTB device object where bidders actually look for it. Whether you're a publisher, an SSP, or a bidder, a free tier is available to get started.
Why It Works
WurflRTD enriches every bid request with accurate device intelligence — form factor, OS, browser,
hardware generation — giving bidders something they can actually act on. Traffic shaping models on
the SSP side, filtering logic on the DSP side, and curated deal eligibility checks all run against the
device object in the bid request. If that object is clean at the source, every downstream system
benefits from the same reliable signal.
Zero-Latency Approach
WurflRTD is designed to have zero impact on auction latency. Auctions are never blocked and looking up device capabilities won’t interfere with the first-impression bid dynamics. First pageviews use client-side fallback, Lightweight Client-side Enrichment (LCE), while WURFL.js loads asynchronously. Subsequent pageviews benefit from caching.
iPhone and iPad Model Detection
While a raw user-agent string says only "iPhone," WurflRTD identifies the specific model — iPhone
17 Pro vs iPhone SE, iPad Pro M4 vs iPad Mini. This is the kind of granularity that buyers who care about premium iOS inventory can't get from the user-agent alone. It matters even more in 2026: since iPadOS 13, iPads identify themselves as desktop Macs by default, and any system doing naive UA parsing routinely misclassifies iPad impressions as desktop. WurflRTD sees through that.
Client Hints Ready
As browsers reduce and freeze the traditional User-Agent string, WurflRTD automatically performs
the HTTP handshake that delivers User-Agent Client Hints (UA-CH) — the modern mechanism
browsers use to volunteer device information on request. Publishers don't have to figure out the
UA-CH protocol on their own; WurflRTD handles it.
Bot Detection Included
Every bid request includes a standardized robot-identification signal (is_robot) even on the first
pageview. This identifies declared and well-known bots — search engine crawlers, legitimate automated agents — so bidders can avoid spending on impressions that were never going to convert. Note: this is crawler identification, not fraud detection. The broader hidden-bot and device-authenticity problem is a separate area of ongoing work at ScientiaMobile.
Zero Latency
Zero latency impact on first auction through Lightweight Client-side Enrichment (LCE)
Industry leaders trust ScientiaMobile’s WURFL® device intelligence.
Integration
Adding WurflRTD to your Prebid.js setup takes minutes:
Javascript
pbjs.setConfig({
realTimeData: {
dataProviders: [{
name: 'wurfl'
}]
}
});
That's it. No API keys required. WurflRTD automatically detects your domain and starts enriching bid requests.
Integration with the WURFL Module for Prebid Server
If you are running server-side header bidding through Prebid Server, WURFL is also available as an official Prebid Server module for Java and Go implementations. The PBS WURFL module is fully integrated with WurflRTD to leverage its iPhone-model detection feature.
Pricing Tiers
WurflRTD comes with tiers for publishers and SSPs based on volume. Contact us for a trial.
Who Benefits Most
WurflRTD delivers the most value in environments where the device signal actually affects the
decision:
- iOS traffic — where the default user-agent is least informative and model-level distinctions matter most.
- Sophisticated DSPs with ML models trained on device signals — where a cleaner input produces a
cleaner output. - Privacy-constrained targeting contexts — where device-level data is one of the few durable,
cookieless dimensions remaining.
"ScientiaMobile has been an invaluable partner in providing WURFL's device detection to power accurate mobile device insights for our ad server, helping us deliver smarter and more reliable ad experiences."
- PubMatic
Ready to clean up the device signal in your bid stream?
Start with our free tier — no credit card, no contract, no risk. Install in a few lines of JavaScript and see what WurflRTD delivers in your own setup.
Product Details and Features
WURFL Capabilities Exposed Through WurflRTD
How WurflRTD Fits Into a Prebid.js Deployment
WurflRTD is registered as a Real-Time Data (RTD) submodule in the Prebid.js core repository. Publishers add it to their Prebid.js build and declare it in pbjs.setConfig() with no API key required—the module auto-detects the publisher's domain. On the first pageview, WurflRTD uses Lightweight Client-side Enrichment (LCE) to populate a baseline set of device signals without waiting for a server round-trip, so the first auction is never blocked. In parallel, the module loads WURFL.js asynchronously; once loaded, all subsequent pageviews in the session use the full server-side detection result, cached locally. On the server-side bidding path, WurflRTD is complemented by the WURFL module for Prebid Server (available for both the Java and Go implementations), which shares the same detection backend and supports the proprietary iPhone-model identification feature.
What Is Prebid.js?
Prebid.js is an open-source JavaScript library that enables publishers to run header bidding auctions in the browser. It provides a standardized wrapper for integrating multiple demand sources—SSPs, ad exchanges, bidder adapters—so they can compete simultaneously for each impression before the primary ad server makes its selection. WurflRTD plugs into Prebid.js's RTD module framework, which means it works alongside other RTD providers and requires no changes to existing bidder adapter configurations. For more details, see the Prebid.js documentation.
Resources
WURFL Capabilities
Learn more about over 500 device capabilities that you can use to optimize your website logic.
Product Documentation
Each product has documentation to help with the installation and implementation process.
Frequently asked questions
Check out our FAQs page to find answers to all the most frequently asked questions.
WURFL Support Team
Receive onboarding or enterprise-level ticketed support. ScientiaMobile actively monitors support tickets.