# AI Crawler Access and llms.txt Visibility Panel (`lavender_whistle/ai-visibility-panel`) Actor

Track which AI crawlers each website blocks or allows (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, Bytespider and more) plus whether it adopted the llms.txt standard. One clean row per domain from public robots.txt and llms.txt. Zero-config default run, no login, no PII.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lavender\_whistle/ai-visibility-panel.md
- **Developed by:** [Cathal Judge](https://apify.com/lavender_whistle) (community)
- **Categories:** Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$4.00 / 1,000 result rows

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## AI Visibility Panel

**Apify Store title:** `AI Crawler Access & llms.txt Visibility Panel`

**Apify Store description:**

> See, across any list of websites, which AI crawlers each site blocks or allows and whether it has adopted the new `llms.txt` standard. The actor reads each site's public `robots.txt` and `llms.txt` and returns one clean row per domain: a per-crawler blocked/allowed map for GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot, anthropic-ai, Claude-Web (Anthropic), CCBot (Common Crawl), Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, Bytespider, Amazonbot and Applebot-Extended, plus `hasLlmsTxt`, `robotsHasAiRules`, a per-vendor breakdown, and a summary like "blocks 3 of 12 AI crawlers". Zero-config default run scans ~15 well-known media, SaaS and retail sites immediately. 100% public data: no login, no API key, no PII.

### Who buys this

- **AI companies** - see exactly who blocks your crawler; build a licensing / partnership target list.
- **GEO / SEO agencies** - audit whether client sites are visible to AI answer engines and have an `llms.txt`.
- **AI-training / data teams** - map crawlable vs blocked domains before a crawl.
- **Publishers & media** - benchmark your AI-access posture against peers.

### Source + legality

`GET https://{domain}/robots.txt` and `GET https://{domain}/llms.txt` - two files every website publishes for crawlers to read. No authentication, no cookies, no PII. Public-data access is backed by *hiQ v. LinkedIn* and *Meta v. Bright Data*. A descriptive `User-Agent` is sent, redirects are followed, and one slow site never fails the run.

### How it reads robots.txt

- User-agent tokens and field names are matched **case-insensitively** (real sites vary the case).
- A crawler is **blocked** when its ruleset disallows the site root (`Disallow: /`) and does not re-allow it (`Allow: /`).
- A blanket `User-agent: *` + `Disallow: /` counts as blocking **all** AI crawlers (via wildcard fallback).
- A crawler named with `Allow: /` (some sites explicitly allow GPTBot) is correctly reported as allowed.
- `hasLlmsTxt` is true only on HTTP 200 with a non-empty body, so soft-404 pages do not false-positive.

### Zero-config default run

Leave the input empty: the actor scans a stable seed list (`openai.com`, `anthropic.com`, `nytimes.com`, `theverge.com`, `reddit.com`, `github.com`, `shopify.com`, `medium.com`, `cnn.com`, `stackoverflow.com`, `wikipedia.org`, `substack.com`, `notion.so`, `hubspot.com`, `cloudflare.com`) and returns one real row per domain, so the Store "try it" button works on first click. Point `domains` at your own list to scan any sites.

### Output fields (one row per domain)

`domain, robotsStatus, llmsStatus, hasRobotsTxt, robotsReadable, robotsHasAiRules, blanketBlockAll, hasLlmsTxt, llmsTxtBytes, aiCrawlerCount, blockedCount, allowedCount, blocks{crawler:bool}, blockedCrawlers[], vendors{vendor:allowed|partial|blocked}, summary, robotsUrl, llmsUrl, source, checkedAt`

### Run locally (no Apify account)

```bash
npm install
npm test --workspace actors/ai-visibility-panel
## or run the actor directly:
node actors/ai-visibility-panel/src/main.js
```

### Proposed pricing (set in Apify at publish - CJ-gated)

Pay-Per-Event in the documented winning band:

- **~$0.004 per domain analyzed** (one billed result row per domain)

Pricing is NOT set here - it is configured on the Apify Store at publish and requires CJ sign-off. No account, no publish, no spend happens in this repo.

# Actor input Schema

## `domains` (type: `array`):

Website domains to check, e.g. \['nytimes.com','openai.com']. Accepts a bare domain or a full URL; www is stripped. Left empty, the actor scans a built-in seed list of ~15 well-known sites.

## `maxDomains` (type: `integer`):

Safety cap on how many domains (and therefore billed result rows) a single run scans. Duplicates are removed before this cap is applied.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domains": [
    "openai.com",
    "anthropic.com",
    "nytimes.com",
    "theverge.com",
    "reddit.com",
    "github.com",
    "shopify.com",
    "medium.com",
    "cnn.com",
    "stackoverflow.com",
    "wikipedia.org",
    "substack.com",
    "notion.so",
    "hubspot.com",
    "cloudflare.com"
  ],
  "maxDomains": 200
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "domains": [
        "openai.com",
        "anthropic.com",
        "nytimes.com",
        "theverge.com",
        "reddit.com",
        "github.com",
        "shopify.com",
        "medium.com",
        "cnn.com",
        "stackoverflow.com",
        "wikipedia.org",
        "substack.com",
        "notion.so",
        "hubspot.com",
        "cloudflare.com"
    ],
    "maxDomains": 200
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("lavender_whistle/ai-visibility-panel").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "domains": [
        "openai.com",
        "anthropic.com",
        "nytimes.com",
        "theverge.com",
        "reddit.com",
        "github.com",
        "shopify.com",
        "medium.com",
        "cnn.com",
        "stackoverflow.com",
        "wikipedia.org",
        "substack.com",
        "notion.so",
        "hubspot.com",
        "cloudflare.com",
    ],
    "maxDomains": 200,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("lavender_whistle/ai-visibility-panel").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "domains": [
    "openai.com",
    "anthropic.com",
    "nytimes.com",
    "theverge.com",
    "reddit.com",
    "github.com",
    "shopify.com",
    "medium.com",
    "cnn.com",
    "stackoverflow.com",
    "wikipedia.org",
    "substack.com",
    "notion.so",
    "hubspot.com",
    "cloudflare.com"
  ],
  "maxDomains": 200
}' |
apify call lavender_whistle/ai-visibility-panel --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=lavender_whistle/ai-visibility-panel",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/cI65bHKo9vZvhCtcj/builds/h6HgM2NHFqzA3ATNK/openapi.json