# Robots.txt Validator — Blocked Bots & Bad Lines (`kadro/robots-txt-validator`) Actor

Check the robots.txt of the sites you give: found or not, groups and rules, sitemaps, crawl-delay, whether all bots are blocked and lines crawlers cannot read.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/kadro/robots-txt-validator.md
- **Developed by:** [Kadro Tools](https://apify.com/kadro) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 site robots.txt checkeds

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Robots.txt Validator

Make sure a leftover `Disallow: /` or a typo in robots.txt is not hiding your site from Google or AI bots.

### What you get

| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| `site, robotsUrl` | The site you gave and its robots.txt address |
| `statusCode, error` | HTTP status and any request error |
| `found` | Whether a robots.txt exists |
| `groups` | Number of user-agent groups |
| `rules` | Number of Allow/Disallow lines |
| `disallowAll` | True when `User-agent: *` has `Disallow: /` |
| `crawlDelay` | Crawl-delay for `*`, if set |
| `sitemaps` | Sitemap URLs declared in the file |
| `issues` | List of problems, or `ok` when nothing is wrong |

### How to use it in 3 steps

1. Paste domains or URLs, one per line (up to 500).
2. Leave `followRedirects` on to read the final robots.txt.
3. Press Start and check `disallowAll` and `issues`; export as JSON, CSV or Excel.

### Pricing

**$2 per 1,000 sites checked.** Example: 100 sites = $0.20. Sites whose robots.txt could not be requested are free; a missing robots.txt (404) is charged because it is a valid answer. Set a maximum cost per run and the robot stops when it is reached.

### Integrations

- **Apify API and webhooks**: start a run and read the dataset from any language.
- **Make, n8n and Zapier**: use the Apify module or node, run this robot and pass the dataset on.
- **Google Sheets**: export the dataset or use the Apify integration to fill a sheet on a schedule.
- **Claude, Cursor and other agents (MCP)**: Use the Apify MCP server (`https://mcp.apify.com?actors=kadro/robots-txt-validator`) from Claude or Cursor and ask: "Check the robots.txt of example.com and tell me if any important bot is blocked"

### FAQ

**What counts as an issue?**
Lines a crawler cannot understand, rules before any User-agent, a robots.txt over 500 KB (Google reads only the first 500 KiB), unusable sitemap URLs and similar.

**Does it test a specific URL against the rules?**
No. It validates the file and its common rules; it does not simulate how each search engine treats every edge case.

**Does it crawl my site?**
No. It reads only /robots.txt.

**What is not charged?**
Requests that failed or were rejected (private addresses).

**Is it legal?**
robots.txt is a public file meant to be read by crawlers.

### Limitations

- Checks syntax and the most common rules, not every search-engine edge case.
- Up to 500 sites per run.
- Reads only the first 500 KB of the file.
- Only public URLs: private and local addresses are blocked.

### Other Kadro tools

Part of the **Kadro SEO toolkit**: check crawl rules here, then validate the sitemap they point to.

- [XML Sitemap Validator](https://apify.com/kadro/sitemap-validator): checks that a sitemap follows the protocol and Google limits.
- [Sitemap URL Extractor](https://apify.com/kadro/sitemap-url-extractor): exports every URL from a sitemap or sitemap index.
- [SEO On-Page Audit Crawler](https://apify.com/kadro/seo-onpage-audit): crawls a whole site and gives every page a 0-100 SEO score.
- [Hreflang & Canonical Checker](https://apify.com/kadro/hreflang-canonical-checker): finds canonical and hreflang errors on multilingual sites.
- [Website Links Extractor](https://apify.com/kadro/url-links-extractor): lists every internal and external link of a page with anchor and nofollow.

Found it useful? Please leave a review ⭐ — it helps a lot. Bugs or feature ideas: open an issue, I answer within 24 h.

# Actor input Schema

## `sites` (type: `array`):

Domains or URLs of the sites to check, e.g. example.com, one per line, up to 500. Only the robots.txt of each site is read.

## `followRedirects` (type: `boolean`):

Read the final robots.txt after redirects (on by default).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "sites": [
    "https://www.python.org/"
  ],
  "followRedirects": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "sites": [
        "https://www.python.org/"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("kadro/robots-txt-validator").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 = { "sites": ["https://www.python.org/"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("kadro/robots-txt-validator").call(run_input=run_input)

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "sites": [
    "https://www.python.org/"
  ]
}' |
apify call kadro/robots-txt-validator --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,kadro/robots-txt-validator"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/9aREHff8r7SEaQvam/builds/ZwXSd62z6LdtGBGDo/openapi.json