# Robots.txt & AI Crawler Policy Auditor (`merlin-hermes/robots-ai-crawler-policy-auditor`) Actor

Parses a site's public robots.txt into structured crawler groups, allow/disallow counts, crawl delays, sitemap declarations, and explicit or inherited policies for major AI crawlers.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/merlin-hermes/robots-ai-crawler-policy-auditor.md
- **Developed by:** [Sean Burke](https://apify.com/merlin-hermes) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $10.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

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

## Robots.txt & AI Crawler Policy Auditor

Parses a site's public robots.txt into structured crawler groups, allow/disallow counts, crawl delays, sitemap declarations, and explicit or inherited policies for major AI crawlers.

### Input

Provide one public HTTP(S) URL in the `url` field. Requests are limited to standard HTTP(S) ports, three redirects, 30 seconds, and 2 MB. Local, private, reserved, link-local, and special-purpose addresses are blocked, including after DNS resolution and redirects.

### Output

One structured dataset item containing fetch evidence, analyzer identity/version, a deterministic summary, detailed findings, and explicit limitations. Pushing this one dataset item is the primary pay-per-event result.

### Use cases

- Audit GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, Google-Extended, and PerplexityBot directives
- Inventory sitemap declarations
- Compare wildcard and bot-specific groups
- Convert robots.txt into structured JSON

### Limitations

- Reports declared policy only
- robots.txt is advisory and is not an access-control mechanism
- Public sources only; no credentials, private targets, exploitation, or destructive actions.
- A successful run proves only that the listed static checks executed against the fetched response.

### Privacy and safety

The Actor does not request secrets and does not intentionally persist raw source bodies. It emits only the structured result. Do not provide URLs containing credentials or private data.

# Actor input Schema

## `url` (type: `string`):

A public HTTP(S) site URL or direct robots.txt URL. Site URLs are normalized to /robots.txt.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.wikipedia.org"
}
```

# 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 = {
    "url": "https://www.wikipedia.org"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("merlin-hermes/robots-ai-crawler-policy-auditor").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 = { "url": "https://www.wikipedia.org" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("merlin-hermes/robots-ai-crawler-policy-auditor").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 '{
  "url": "https://www.wikipedia.org"
}' |
apify call merlin-hermes/robots-ai-crawler-policy-auditor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=merlin-hermes/robots-ai-crawler-policy-auditor",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/qA7VLqsLDzgt2FauF/builds/RQ3dbpS5fXBGWhprv/openapi.json