Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and software for managing bot detection in a content delivery network (CDN). In one implementation, a cache node in a CDN may obtain a content request without a valid token for content not cached on the cache node and, in response to the content request, generate a synthetic response for the content request, wherein the synthetic response comprises a request for additional information from the end user device associated with the content request. The cache node further may obtain a response from the end user device and determine whether to satisfy the request based on whether the response from the end user device indicates that it is a bot.