DuckDuckBot
DuckDuckGo •
Since 2008
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Official Docs
What is DuckDuckBot?
DuckDuckBot is the web crawler for DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search engine that doesn't track users or store personal information. While DuckDuckGo primarily sources results from partners like Bing, DuckDuckBot helps improve and supplement these results with direct crawling. The bot focuses on discovering and updating content while maintaining DuckDuckGo's privacy principles. It respects robots.txt and operates transparently, contributing to DuckDuckGo's mission of providing private search without compromising quality. The crawler helps DuckDuckGo maintain independence and improve result quality for its growing user base.
User Agent String
DuckDuckBot/1.0; (+http://duckduckgo.com/duckduckbot.html)
How to Control DuckDuckBot
Block Completely
To prevent DuckDuckBot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block DuckDuckBot
User-agent: DuckDuckBot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: DuckDuckBot
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: DuckDuckBot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify DuckDuckBot
Verification Method:
Check user agent and request patterns
Check user agent and request patterns
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect DuckDuckBot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/DuckDuckBot/iStrict Pattern
/^DuckDuckBot/1\.0; \(\+http\://duckduckgo\.com/duckduckbot\.html\)$/Flexible Pattern
/DuckDuckBot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/iVendor Match
/.*DuckDuckGo.*DuckDuckBot/iImplementation Examples
// PHP Detection for DuckDuckBot
function detect_duckduckbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/DuckDuckBot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('DuckDuckBot detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for DuckDuckBot
import re
from flask import request, make_responsedef detect_duckduckbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'DuckDuckBot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False# Django Middleware
class DuckDuckBotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for DuckDuckBot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();// Middleware to detect DuckDuckBot
function detectDuckDuckBot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /DuckDuckBot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('DuckDuckBot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'DuckDuckBot';
}
next();
}app.use(detectDuckDuckBot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for DuckDuckBot# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} DuckDuckBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} DuckDuckBot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "DuckDuckBot" is_bot=1# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /DuckDuckBot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for DuckDuckBot# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_duckduckbot {
default 0;
~*DuckDuckBot 1;
}server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_duckduckbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_duckduckbot) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_duckduckbot) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Allow | Essential for product visibility in search results |
| Blog/News | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Allow | Improves documentation discoverability for developers |
| Corporate Site | Allow | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: DuckDuckBot
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: DuckDuckBot
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: DuckDuckBot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
DuckDuckBotRobots.txt Name
DuckDuckBotCategory
searchRespects robots.txt
Yes
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