SerendeputyBot User Agent: What It Is & How to Block It

01 · Operator

Who operates SerendeputyBot

Company: Serendeputy (Jason Butler)
Type: Other bot
Official docs: serendeputy.com

02 · Behavior

What SerendeputyBot does

The bot builds an index of the open web and of feeds. Users build custom newsfeeds from that index. Indexed items link to the original sources.

03 · Impact

Why SerendeputyBot matters for your site

If you allow it

Follows robots.txt
Links send readers to the original source
Uses conditional requests for feeds

If you block it

Small audience
No benefit if you do not want feed aggregation

04 · Allow

How to allow SerendeputyBot

robots.txt

User-agent: SerendeputyBot
Allow: /

Cloudflare

# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "SerendeputyBot")
Action:     Skip › All Super Bot Fight Mode rules

# Also check Security › Bots: "Block AI bots" can block it regardless of robots.txt.

WordPress

# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: SerendeputyBot
Allow: /

nginx

# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "SerendeputyBot") { return 403; }

Apache

# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SerendeputyBot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]

05 · Block

How to block SerendeputyBot

SerendeputyBot follows robots.txt, so one rule is enough. Use a server or CDN rule only to stop spoofed copies.

robots.txt

User-agent: SerendeputyBot
Disallow: /

Cloudflare

# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "SerendeputyBot")
Action:     Block

WordPress

# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: SerendeputyBot
Disallow: /

nginx

# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "SerendeputyBot") {
    return 403;
}

Apache

# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} SerendeputyBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>

06 · User agents

User agents we see for SerendeputyBot

The user agent published by the operator:

SerendeputyBot/0.8.6 (http://serendeputy.com/about/serendeputy-bot)

07 · Verification

Is it really SerendeputyBot?

SerendeputyBot’s operator publishes no IP ranges or hostnames, so requests cannot be verified. Treat the user agent as a claim, and watch your logs for unusual request rates.

FAQ

Questions about SerendeputyBot

What is SerendeputyBot?

It is the crawler of Serendeputy, a personal newsfeed engine. It indexes the open web so users can build custom feeds.

Does SerendeputyBot respect robots.txt?

Yes. The operator states the bot follows robots.txt and invites reports of misinterpretations.

SerendeputyBot is Serendeputy (Jason Butler)’s other bot