mirror of
https://github.com/jbowdre/runtimeterror.git
synced 2024-12-18 09:12:19 +00:00
142 lines
No EOL
5.1 KiB
Markdown
142 lines
No EOL
5.1 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: "Blocking AI Crawlers"
|
|
date: 2024-04-12
|
|
lastmod: "2024-04-14T02:21:57Z"
|
|
description: "Using Hugo to politely ask AI bots to not steal my content - and then configuring Cloudflare's WAF to actively block them, just to be sure."
|
|
featured: false
|
|
toc: true
|
|
comments: true
|
|
categories: Backstage
|
|
tags:
|
|
- cloud
|
|
- cloudflare
|
|
- hugo
|
|
- meta
|
|
- selfhosting
|
|
---
|
|
I've seen some recent posts from folks like [Cory Dransfeldt](https://coryd.dev/posts/2024/go-ahead-and-block-ai-web-crawlers/) and [Ethan Marcotte](https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/blockin-bots/) about how (and *why*) to prevent your personal website from being slurped up by the crawlers that AI companies use to [actively enshittify the internet](https://boehs.org/node/llms-destroying-internet). I figured it was past time for me to hop on board with this, so here we are.
|
|
|
|
My initial approach was to use [Hugo's robots.txt templating](https://gohugo.io/templates/robots/) to generate a `robots.txt` file based on a list of bad bots I got from [ai.robots.txt on GitHub](https://github.com/ai-robots-txt/ai.robots.txt).
|
|
|
|
I dumped that list into my `config/params.toml` file, *above* any of the nested elements (since toml is kind of picky about that...).
|
|
|
|
```toml
|
|
robots = [
|
|
"AdsBot-Google",
|
|
"Amazonbot",
|
|
"anthropic-ai",
|
|
"Applebot",
|
|
"AwarioRssBot",
|
|
"AwarioSmartBot",
|
|
"Bytespider",
|
|
"CCBot",
|
|
"ChatGPT",
|
|
"ChatGPT-User",
|
|
"Claude-Web",
|
|
"ClaudeBot",
|
|
"cohere-ai",
|
|
"DataForSeoBot",
|
|
"Diffbot",
|
|
"FacebookBot",
|
|
"Google-Extended",
|
|
"GPTBot",
|
|
"ImagesiftBot",
|
|
"magpie-crawler",
|
|
"omgili",
|
|
"Omgilibot",
|
|
"peer39_crawler",
|
|
"PerplexityBot",
|
|
"YouBot"
|
|
]
|
|
|
|
[author]
|
|
name = "John Bowdre"
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
I then created a new template in `layouts/robots.txt`:
|
|
|
|
```text
|
|
Sitemap: {{ .Site.BaseURL }}/sitemap.xml
|
|
|
|
User-agent: *
|
|
Disallow:
|
|
{{ range .Site.Params.robots }}
|
|
User-agent: {{ . }}
|
|
{{- end }}
|
|
Disallow: /
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
And enabled the template processing for this in my `config/hugo.toml` file:
|
|
|
|
```toml
|
|
enableRobotsTXT = true
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Now Hugo will generate the following `robots.txt` file for me:
|
|
|
|
```text
|
|
Sitemap: https://runtimeterror.dev//sitemap.xml
|
|
|
|
User-agent: *
|
|
Disallow:
|
|
|
|
User-agent: AdsBot-Google
|
|
User-agent: Amazonbot
|
|
User-agent: anthropic-ai
|
|
User-agent: Applebot
|
|
User-agent: AwarioRssBot
|
|
User-agent: AwarioSmartBot
|
|
User-agent: Bytespider
|
|
User-agent: CCBot
|
|
User-agent: ChatGPT
|
|
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
|
|
User-agent: Claude-Web
|
|
User-agent: ClaudeBot
|
|
User-agent: cohere-ai
|
|
User-agent: DataForSeoBot
|
|
User-agent: Diffbot
|
|
User-agent: FacebookBot
|
|
User-agent: Google-Extended
|
|
User-agent: GPTBot
|
|
User-agent: ImagesiftBot
|
|
User-agent: magpie-crawler
|
|
User-agent: omgili
|
|
User-agent: Omgilibot
|
|
User-agent: peer39_crawler
|
|
User-agent: PerplexityBot
|
|
User-agent: YouBot
|
|
Disallow: /
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Cool!
|
|
|
|
I also dropped the following into `static/ai.txt` for [good measure](https://site.spawning.ai/spawning-ai-txt):
|
|
|
|
```text
|
|
# Spawning AI
|
|
# Prevent datasets from using the following file types
|
|
|
|
User-Agent: *
|
|
Disallow: /
|
|
Disallow: *
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
That's all well and good, but these files carry all the weight and authority of a "No Soliciting" sign. Do I *really* trust these bots to honor it?
|
|
|
|
I'm hosting this site [on Neocities](/deploy-hugo-neocities-github-actions/), and Neocities unfortunately (though perhaps wisely) doesn't give me control of the web server there. But the site is fronted by Cloudflare, and that does give me a lot of options for blocking stuff I don't want.
|
|
|
|
So I added a [WAF Custom Rule](https://developers.cloudflare.com/waf/custom-rules/) to block those unwanted bots. (I could have used their [User Agent Blocking](https://developers.cloudflare.com/waf/tools/user-agent-blocking) to accomplish the same, but you can only set 10 of those on the free tier. I can put all the user agents together in a single WAF Custom Rule.)
|
|
|
|
Here's the expression I'm using:
|
|
|
|
```text
|
|
(http.user_agent contains "AdsBot-Google") or (http.user_agent contains "Amazonbot") or (http.user_agent contains "anthropic-ai") or (http.user_agent contains "Applebot") or (http.user_agent contains "AwarioRssBot") or (http.user_agent contains "AwarioSmartBot") or (http.user_agent contains "Bytespider") or (http.user_agent contains "CCBot") or (http.user_agent contains "ChatGPT-User") or (http.user_agent contains "ClaudeBot") or (http.user_agent contains "Claude-Web") or (http.user_agent contains "cohere-ai") or (http.user_agent contains "DataForSeoBot") or (http.user_agent contains "FacebookBot") or (http.user_agent contains "Google-Extended") or (http.user_agent contains "GoogleOther") or (http.user_agent contains "GPTBot") or (http.user_agent contains "ImagesiftBot") or (http.user_agent contains "magpie-crawler") or (http.user_agent contains "Meltwater") or (http.user_agent contains "omgili") or (http.user_agent contains "omgilibot") or (http.user_agent contains "peer39_crawler") or (http.user_agent contains "peer39_crawler/1.0") or (http.user_agent contains "PerplexityBot") or (http.user_agent contains "Seekr") or (http.user_agent contains "YouBot")
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
And checking on that rule ~24 hours later, I can see that it's doing some good:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
See ya, AI bots! |