isbot

What is isbot?

The 'isbot' npm package is a lightweight utility for detecting bots, crawlers, and spiders based on the user agent string. It helps developers identify non-human traffic to their websites or applications.

What are isbot's main functionalities?

Basic Bot Detection

This feature allows you to check if a given user agent string belongs to a bot. The function returns true if the user agent is identified as a bot, otherwise false.

const isBot = require('isbot');

const userAgent = 'Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)';
console.log(isBot(userAgent)); // true

Custom Bot Patterns

You can extend the default bot detection patterns with custom patterns. This is useful if you have specific bots that are not covered by the default list.

const isBot = require('isbot');

isBot.extend(['my-custom-bot']);
const userAgent = 'my-custom-bot';
console.log(isBot(userAgent)); // true

Bot Detection in HTTP Requests

This feature demonstrates how to use 'isbot' to detect bots in incoming HTTP requests. Depending on whether the user agent is a bot, the server responds with a different message.

const isBot = require('isbot');
const http = require('http');

http.createServer((req, res) => {
  if (isBot(req.headers['user-agent'])) {
    res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
    res.end('Hello, bot!');
  } else {
    res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
    res.end('Hello, human!');
  }
}).listen(3000);

Other packages similar to isbot

useragent

The 'useragent' package provides detailed parsing of user agent strings, including bot detection. It offers more comprehensive information about the user agent, such as browser, version, and OS, but may be more complex to use compared to 'isbot'.

express-useragent

The 'express-useragent' package is an Express middleware for parsing user agent strings. It includes bot detection and provides additional details about the user agent. It is specifically designed for use with Express.js applications.

ua-parser-js

The 'ua-parser-js' package is a JavaScript library for parsing user agent strings. It includes bot detection and provides detailed information about the browser, engine, OS, and device. It is a more general-purpose library compared to 'isbot'.

README

isbot 🤖/👨‍🦰

Detect bots/crawlers/spiders using the user agent string.

Check it out

Visit the online checker

Usage

const isbot = require('isbot');

Simple detection

// Nodejs HTTP
isbot(request.getHeader('User-Agent'))

// ExpressJS
isbot(req.get['user-agent'])

// User Agent string
isbot('Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)') // true
isbot('Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/41.0.2228.0 Safari/537.36') // false

Add crawler user agents

Add rules to user agent match RegExp

isbot('Mozilla/5.0') // false
isbot.extend([
    'istat',
    'httpclient',
    '^mozilla/\\d\\.\\d$'
])
isbot('Mozilla/5.0') // true

Remove matches of known crawlers

Remove rules to user agent match RegExp (see existing rules in list.json file)

isbot('Google Page Speed Insights') // true
isbot.exclude([
  'Google Page Speed Insights',
  'Chrome-Lighthouse'
])
isbot('Google Page Speed Insights') // false

Verbose result

Return the respective match for bot user agent rule

isbot.find('Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)') // 'bot'

Definitions

• Bot. Autonomous program imitating or replacing some aspect of a human behaviour, performing repetitive tasks much faster than human users could.
• Good bot. Automated programs who visit websites in order to collect useful information. Web crawlers, site scrapers, stress testers, preview builders and other programs are welcomed on most websites because they serve purposes of mutual benefits.
• Bad bot. Programs which are designed to perform malicious actions, ultimately hurting businesses. Testing credential databases, DDoS attacks, spam bots.

Clarifications

What does "isbot" do?

This package aims to identify "Good bots". Those who voluntarily identify themselves by setting a unique, preferably descriptive, user agent, usually by setting a dedicated request header.

What doesn't "isbot" do?

It does not try to recognise malicious bots or programs disguising themselves as real users.

Why would I want to identify good bots?

Recognising good bots such as web crawlers is useful for multiple purposes. Although it is not recommended to serve different content to web crawlers like Googlebot, you can still elect to

• Flag bot pageviews to consider in business analysis
• Prefer to serve cached content and relieve service load
• Omit third party solutions' code (tags, pixels)

It is not recommended to whitelist requests for any reason based on user agent header only. Instead other methods of identification can be added such as reverse dns lookup.

Data sources

Crawlers user agents:

• user-agents.net
• crawler-user-agents repo
• Manual list

Non bot user agents:

• Manual list (source: whatismybrowser.com)

Changelog

3.0.1

Crawlers list update

Add patterns for:

• Google WebLight Proxy
• HighWinds Content Delivery System
• Hydra by addthis
• RebelMouse
• Scanners: Jorgee Vulnerability, ClamAV Website, Burp Collaborator
• Monitoring services: Xymon, AlertSite, Hobbit, updown.io, Monit, Dotcom

Testing

Add some legit browser user-agent strings Fix periodic tests environment Add a tester page to check user agents easily