Feedly bot crawls websites to fetch RSS feeds and content for millions of users who use Feedly as their news reader. As one of the most popular RSS readers after Google Reader's shutdown, Feedly serves professionals, researchers, and content enthusiasts who want to stay updated on specific topics. The bot respects standard RSS/Atom protocols and also discovers new feeds. The user agent often includes subscriber count, helping publishers understand their Feedly audience size. For content creators, Feedly represents a engaged audience actively seeking their content.
// PHP Detection for Feedly
function detect_feedly() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Feedly/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Feedly 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Feedly
import re
from flask import request, make_responsedef detect_feedly():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Feedly'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False# Django Middleware
class FeedlyMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Feedly
const express = require('express');
const app = express();// Middleware to detect Feedly
function detectFeedly(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Feedly/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Feedly detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Feedly';
}
next();
}app.use(detectFeedly);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Feedly# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Feedly [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Feedly [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Feedly" is_bot=1# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Feedly/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Feedly# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_feedly {
default 0;
~*Feedly 1;
}server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_feedly) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_feedly) {
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_feedly) {
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