Twitterbot
X (Twitter) •
Since 2012
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is Twitterbot?
Twitterbot is the crawler used by X (formerly Twitter) to generate Twitter Cards - the rich media previews that appear when links are shared on the platform. The bot reads Twitter Card meta tags to display enhanced previews with images, summaries, and other media. These previews are crucial for engagement on X, as tweets with Twitter Cards receive significantly more clicks. Twitterbot also handles video previews and app cards for mobile applications. Publishers and developers must ensure their Twitter Card markup is properly implemented for Twitterbot to generate optimal previews.
User Agent String
Twitterbot/1.0
How to Control Twitterbot
Block Completely
To prevent Twitterbot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Twitterbot
User-agent: Twitterbot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Twitterbot
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: Twitterbot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Twitterbot
Verification Method:
Use Twitter's Card Validator tool
Use Twitter's Card Validator tool
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Twitterbot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Twitterbot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Twitterbot/1\.0$/
Flexible Pattern
/Twitterbot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*X \(Twitter\).*Twitterbot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Twitterbot
function detect_twitterbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Twitterbot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Twitterbot 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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Twitterbot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_twitterbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Twitterbot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class TwitterbotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Twitterbot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Twitterbot
function detectTwitterbot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Twitterbot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Twitterbot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Twitterbot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectTwitterbot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Twitterbot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Twitterbot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Twitterbot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Twitterbot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Twitterbot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Twitterbot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_twitterbot {
default 0;
~*Twitterbot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_twitterbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_twitterbot) {
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_twitterbot) {
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: Twitterbot
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: Twitterbot
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Twitterbot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Twitterbot
Robots.txt Name
Twitterbot
Category
social
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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