Published on 2025-08-07T06:18:08Z

SerendeputyBot

SerendeputyBot is a web fetcher for the content curation platform Serendeputy. It is an on-demand bot, not a general crawler, that visits a web page only when the platform needs to generate a link preview. Its purpose is to gather metadata like the title and description to provide users with context about links shared within the Serendeputy ecosystem. Its presence on your site is a result of user activity.

What is SerendeputyBot?

SerendeputyBot is a web crawler, or fetcher, for the content curation platform Serendeputy. It identifies itself in server logs with the user-agent string SerendeputyBot/0.8.6 (http://serendeputy.com/about/serendeputy-bot). It is a lightweight crawler that does not execute JavaScript or handle cookies; its design is focused on efficient data retrieval for link previews rather than interactive content processing.

Why is SerendeputyBot crawling my site?

SerendeputyBot is visiting your website to collect the metadata needed for a link preview. It is typically dispatched on-demand when the Serendeputy platform needs to present information about a link, such as its title and description. Its visits are not part of a systematic crawl of your entire site but are triggered by your content being referenced or shared within the Serendeputy ecosystem. This is a standard and authorized part of how the web functions.

What is the purpose of SerendeputyBot?

The purpose of SerendeputyBot is to support the Serendeputy content curation platform. Its primary function is to gather metadata to enable rich link previews and content indexing within the service. For website owners, this can indirectly increase visibility and traffic, as your content will be properly represented when it is shared on the platform. The bot is not known to be AI-powered; its focus is on metadata extraction for previews.

How do I block SerendeputyBot?

To prevent SerendeputyBot from accessing your website, you can add a specific disallow rule to your robots.txt file. This is the standard method for managing crawler access.

Add the following lines to your robots.txt file to block this bot:

User-agent: SerendeputyBot
Disallow: /

How to verify the authenticity of the user-agent operated by Serendeputy?

Reverse IP lookup technique

To verify user-agent authenticity, you can use host linux command two times with the IP address of the requester.
  1. > host IPAddressOfRequest
    This command returns the reverse lookup hostname (e.g., 4.4.8.8.in-addr.arpa.). 
  2. > host ReverseDNSFromTheOutputOfFirstRequest
If the output matches the original IP address and the domain is associated with a trusted operator (e.g., Serendeputy), the user-agent can be considered legitimate.

IP list lookup technique

Some operators provide a public list of IP addresses used by their crawlers. This list can be cross-referenced to verify a user-agent's authenticity. However, both operators and website owners may find it challenging to maintain an up-to-date list, so use this method with caution and in conjunction with other verification techniques.