How to block Superfeedr
Operated by Superfeedr. is a fetcher operated by Superfeedr. If you think this is incorrect or can provide additional detail about its purpose, please let us know. Fetcher Retrieves web page metadata to power app features like link previews or feeds
How it identifies itself
Superfeedr bot/2.0 http://superfeedr.com - Make your feeds realtime: get in touch - feed-id:1162088860
robots.txt
What the agent asks to be told. It obeys this or it does not — nothing enforces it.
User-agent: Superfeedr Disallow: /
nginx
In the server block, then reload.
# In the server block. 403 rather than 444: a closed connection tells the
# operator nothing, and an agent that gets a status code can log it.
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Superfeedr|Superfeedr bot)") {
return 403;
}
Apache
In .htaccess or the vhost.
BrowserMatchNoCase "Superfeedr" bad_bot
BrowserMatchNoCase "Superfeedr bot" bad_bot
<RequireAll>
Require all granted
Require not env bad_bot
</RequireAll>
Cloudflare
Security → WAF → Custom rules.
# Security → WAF → Custom rules, action: Block (http.user_agent contains "Superfeedr") or (http.user_agent contains "Superfeedr bot")
WordPress
A child theme's functions.php, or a small plugin.
// functions.php of a child theme, or a small plugin. Runs before WordPress
// builds the page, so a blocked agent costs one PHP process and no queries.
add_action('init', function () {
$agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
foreach (['Superfeedr', 'Superfeedr bot'] as $needle) {
if (stripos($agent, $needle) !== false) {
status_header(403);
exit('Blocked: Superfeedr');
}
}
});
robots.txt is a request. The rules below it are the wall.
Superfeedr publishes a token, so the directive above will work for as long as it keeps honouring it — and nothing except its own good manners makes it. The server rules match on a header the requester sets, which stops the agent that says who it is and not the one that copies somebody else's name. Botscope verifies identity against DNS and published address ranges, records which check decided each request, and shows you the ones that lied.