Embedly
Medium •
Since 2010
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is Embedly?
Embedly is a service that fetches URL content to generate rich embeds and link previews for publishers and platforms. Now owned by Medium, Embedly processes URLs to extract metadata, generate previews, and create responsive embeds for various content types including articles, videos, images, and social media posts. The bot respects robots.txt directives.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Embedly/0.2; +http://support.embed.ly/)
How to Control Embedly
Block Completely
To prevent Embedly from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Embedly
User-agent: Embedly
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Embedly
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: Embedly
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Embedly
Verification Method:
Check user agent string for Embedly identifier
Check user agent string for Embedly identifier
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Embedly in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Embedly/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; Embedly/0\.2; \+http\://support\.embed\.ly/\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Embedly[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Medium.*Embedly/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Embedly
function detect_embedly() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Embedly/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Embedly 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Embedly
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_embedly():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Embedly'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class EmbedlyMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Embedly
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Embedly
function detectEmbedly(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Embedly/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Embedly detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Embedly';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectEmbedly);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Embedly
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Embedly [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Embedly [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Embedly" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Embedly/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Embedly
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_embedly {
default 0;
~*Embedly 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_embedly) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_embedly) {
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_embedly) {
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 | Optional | Evaluate based on bandwidth usage vs. benefits |
| Blog/News | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Selective | Allow for public docs, block for internal docs |
| Corporate Site | Limit | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: Embedly
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: Embedly
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Embedly
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Embedly
Robots.txt Name
Embedly
Category
other
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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