ProofBot reads your pages the way AI assistants do.
ProofBot is the Proofsource crawler. It checks how AI assistants read your pages, so brands can see why AI recommends them or leaves them out. It says who it is, follows robots.txt and reads slowly.
Its user agent.
Every ProofBot request sends this exact user agent. It never pretends to be a browser or another company's crawler.
ProofBot/1.0 (+https://proofsource.co/proofbot; checks how AI assistants read your pages)In robots.txt, it answers to the name ProofBot, in any letter case.
What it reads.
Pages AI already cites
When an AI assistant cites a public page in an answer, ProofBot reads that page to see why it was picked.
A brand's own site
The public pages of a brand that uses Proofsource, to check what AI assistants can read on them.
Public pages only
ProofBot never signs in and never reads a page behind a login.
How it behaves.
It follows robots.txt
It follows robots.txt
It reads slowly
It reads slowly
It says who it is
It says who it is
How to allow it, or block it.
User-agent: ProofBot
Allow: /If your firewall or bot protection blocks ProofBot, open Settings, then Site access, in your Proofsource workspace. It shows our fixed addresses once they are published, and a header unique to your brand, X-Proofsource-Check. We send that header only to your own site. Add an allow rule for the header, or for the addresses once they are listed.
User-agent: ProofBot
Disallow: /Other names you may see.
A few small checks read one page or link at a time under their own names. Each links this page.
| User agent | What it does |
|---|---|
| ProofSourceCitationLivenessBot/1.0 (+https://proofsource.co/proofbot) | Checks that a link an AI answer cited still opens. |
| ProofSourcePassageScoreBot/1.0 (+https://proofsource.co/proofbot) | Reads one page to score how easy it is for AI to quote. |
| Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ProofSourceBot/1.0; +https://proofsource.co/proofbot) | Reads a new brand's home page once, to learn what the brand does. |
Questions about ProofBot?
Email us with your site and what you saw in your logs. A person replies.