SurdotlyBot
Surdotly •
Since 2013
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is SurdotlyBot?
SurdotlyBot powers Sur.ly, a service that creates safe, short previews of web links. The bot analyzes web pages to generate visual previews and safety ratings, helping users understand link destinations before clicking. Sur.ly is particularly popular on social media platforms where users want to preview links safely. The service also provides link analytics and helps protect users from malicious or inappropriate content by pre-screening destinations.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; SurdotlyBot/1.0; +http://sur.ly/bot.html)
How to Control SurdotlyBot
Block Completely
To prevent SurdotlyBot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block SurdotlyBot
User-agent: SurdotlyBot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: SurdotlyBot
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: SurdotlyBot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify SurdotlyBot
Verification Method:
Sur.ly bot identification
Sur.ly bot identification
Learn more in the official documentation.
⚠️ AI Training Notice
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect SurdotlyBot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/SurdotlyBot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 \(compatible; SurdotlyBot/1\.0; \+http\://sur\.ly/bot\.html\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/SurdotlyBot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Surdotly.*SurdotlyBot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for SurdotlyBot
function detect_surdotlybot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/SurdotlyBot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('SurdotlyBot 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for SurdotlyBot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_surdotlybot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'SurdotlyBot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class SurdotlyBotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for SurdotlyBot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect SurdotlyBot
function detectSurdotlyBot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /SurdotlyBot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('SurdotlyBot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'SurdotlyBot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectSurdotlyBot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for SurdotlyBot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SurdotlyBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SurdotlyBot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "SurdotlyBot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /SurdotlyBot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for SurdotlyBot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_surdotlybot {
default 0;
~*SurdotlyBot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_surdotlybot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_surdotlybot) {
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_surdotlybot) {
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 | Limit Access | Protect pricing and inventory data from AI training |
| Blog/News | Consider Blocking | Your content may be used for AI training without compensation |
| 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: SurdotlyBot
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: SurdotlyBot
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: SurdotlyBot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
SurdotlyBot
Robots.txt Name
SurdotlyBot
Category
ai, other
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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