Robots.txt Policy Lint

Lint your robots.txt and see which AI crawlers it really blocks.

CommunityOnlineNo sign-inGlobalFreeCan modify data

What it can do

  • Lint Robots Txt: Parse a robots.txt you paste and report every fault that makes it do something other than what it looks like: misspelled directives, a full UA string where a product token belongs, ru
  • Check Path Allowed: Evaluate a pasted robots.txt for one crawler and one or more paths under RFC 9309: longest token match for the group, longest path pattern for the rule, Allow breaking a tie, * and
  • Audit Ai Access: Evaluate a pasted robots.txt against every AI crawler in this index and return the two lists that matter: blocked and allowed, per operator and category. Also names the tokens in your

What data it sees

Do you need an account

No: the server works without sign-in

Lint your robots.txt and see which AI crawlers it really blocks. Free, no key, nothing to install. Direct endpoint, no gateway: https://www.pathwren.workers.dev/c/smithery-direct/mcp/robots (streamable HTTP, no key, no signup). Tools: lint_robots_txt, check_path_allowed, audit_ai_access, diff_robots_txt, merge_policy, example. Call the example tool with no arguments for a worked answer against real data before you write any code. What it does and how, in one page: https://www.pathwren.workers.dev/c/smithery-direct/mcp-robots.html

How to connect

How to connect Robots.txt Policy Lint to Claude

The server address to paste into Claude settings:

https://robots-policy-lint--pathwren.run.tools

  1. Open Claude (claude.ai or the desktop app).
  2. Go to Settings → Connectors.
  3. Click Add custom connector.
  4. Paste the server address copied below into Remote MCP server URL and click Add.
  5. In a chat, click + → Connectors and switch the new connector on.

Custom connectors are available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans (Free is limited to one). On Team and Enterprise an organization Owner adds the connector first under Organization settings → Connectors.

Authorization

After you click Add, a sign-in window for the service opens. Sign in with your own account and approve access. Claude never sees your password.

How to connect Robots.txt Policy Lint to ChatGPT

The server address to paste into ChatGPT settings:

https://robots-policy-lint--pathwren.run.tools

  1. Open ChatGPT in a browser (chatgpt.com). A Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu plan is required.
  2. Turn on developer mode once: Settings → Apps → Advanced settings → Developer mode.
  3. Open Settings → Connectors and click Create.
  4. Fill in the form: Name (anything), Description (one line about what the service does), MCP server URL (copy it below).
  5. Under Authentication choose OAuth if the service requires sign-in, otherwise None. Click Create.
  6. In a new chat open + → Apps/Connectors and enable the connector.

OpenAI has renamed this section before (Connectors → Apps/Plugins). If the label differs, search settings for "developer mode". On Business/Enterprise workspaces an admin must allow custom connectors first.

Authorization

On first use ChatGPT opens the service's sign-in window. Sign in and approve access.

How to connect Robots.txt Policy Lint to Cursor

The server address to paste into Cursor settings:

https://robots-policy-lint--pathwren.run.tools

Fastest: click Open in Cursor below and confirm the prompt.

Manually:

  1. In Cursor open Settings → Cursor Settings → MCP and click Add new global MCP server.
  2. Paste the JSON copied below into ~/.cursor/mcp.json (per project: .cursor/mcp.json in the repo root).
  3. Save the file. The server appears in the MCP list; authorize it there if asked.

Authorization

If the service needs sign-in, an authorize button appears next to the server in the MCP list.

Server tool list (7)

Raw names from tools/list. Only developers need these.

lint_robots_txtParse a robots.txt you paste and report every fault that makes it do something other than what it looks like: misspelled directives, a full UA string where a product token belongs, rules before any User-agent line, duplicate groups, noindex (unsupported since 2019), relative Sitemap URLs, BOM. Each finding carries the line number and the fix. Example: robots_txt='User-agent: GPTBot\nDisallow: /\n\nUser-agent: *\nAllow: /\n' — paste the whole file, it is never fetched for you. Also callable without MCP, same implementation: GET https://www.pathwren.workers.dev/tools/robots-lint?robots_txt=<urlencoded>&s=client-dossiers — or POST the file as the raw body to the same URL.
check_path_allowedEvaluate a pasted robots.txt for one crawler and one or more paths under RFC 9309: longest token match for the group, longest path pattern for the rule, Allow breaking a tie, * and $ supported. Returns allowed/disallowed per path with the exact line that decided it, and flags the cases where a merge-groups parser and a first-group-wins parser would disagree. Example: user_agent='GPTBot', paths=['/', '/blog'], with your robots_txt pasted in. Also callable without MCP, same implementation: GET https://www.pathwren.workers.dev/tools/robots-allowed?robots_txt=<urlencoded>&ua=GPTBot&path=/blog&s=client-dossiers
audit_ai_accessEvaluate a pasted robots.txt against every AI crawler in this index and return the two lists that matter: blocked and allowed, per operator and category. Also names the tokens in your file that match no known crawler (a typo blocks nothing) and separates the crawlers that document obedience from the ones observed ignoring robots.txt, which need an IP or WAF rule instead. Example: path='/' with your robots_txt pasted in — the verdict is per crawler, at that path. Also callable without MCP, same implementation: GET https://www.pathwren.workers.dev/tools/ai-access?robots_txt=<urlencoded>&s=client-dossiers
diff_robots_txtCompare two versions of a robots.txt and report only the crawlers whose verdict actually changes at a given path — not the text difference. Answers 'did my edit do what I meant, and did it do anything else', including sitemap additions and whether the parse errors went up or down. Example: before='User-agent: *\nAllow: /\n', after=your edited file, path='/'.
merge_policyMerge one of eight maintained robots.txt stances (block-ai-training, allow-ai-search-only, block-all-ai, block-datasets, block-disputed, block-seo-tools, allow-all, maximum-ai-visibility) into a robots.txt you already have, without touching a single rule you wrote: a token you already name keeps your rules and the stance's version is reported instead of applied. Example: stance='block-ai-training', robots_txt='User-agent: *\nAllow: /\n'.
whoamiTakes no arguments. Safe to call. Deterministic. Touches no third party. Classifies the request you just sent: the user-agent you claim, the address you came from, the class this host's own instrument books you as, whether we have seen you here before and what you fetched, and what this host's own robots.txt says to you specifically — the group that matches your token, the line that decided it, and whether you are allowed the path you are on. Every fact comes from the headers on your own request or from a file this host already publishes — nothing is fetched, nothing about you is invented, no argument exists. Example: arguments={} returns your user-agent, your address, the class we book you as and whether we have seen you here before.
exampleTakes no arguments. Safe to call. Deterministic. Touches no third party. Runs this server's own worked example end to end — lint_robots_txt on three groups lifted verbatim from this host's own published /robots/block-ai-training.txt and /robots.txt — our data, not yours, and nothing is fetched — and returns exactly the structuredContent a real call returns, not a mock and not a description of one. Use it to see the shape of an answer before you decide what to send. The input is canned from this host's own data; no URL of yours is fetched and no third party is touched. Example: arguments={} runs lint_robots_txt with {"robots_txt":"# lifted from https://www.pathwren.workers.dev/robots/block-ai-training.txt and returns its real answer.