HeartRails Capture User Agent: What It Is & How to Block It

01 · Operator

Who operates HeartRails Capture

Company: HeartRails Inc.
Type: Other bot
Official docs: capture.heartrails.com

02 · Behavior

What HeartRails Capture does

HeartRails Capture creates thumbnail images of web pages, PDF files and Office files. Users append a page URL to the service address and embed the image on blogs or sites. Requests are made when such a thumbnail is created.

03 · Impact

Why HeartRails Capture matters for your site

If you allow it

Thumbnails of your pages may appear as previews on other sites
Load is low, usually one page per thumbnail

If you block it

Images are made for third-party sites, not for search visibility
Thumbnails may show outdated versions of your pages

04 · Allow

How to allow HeartRails Capture

robots.txt

User-agent: HeartRails_Capture
Allow: /

Cloudflare

# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "HeartRails_Capture")
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: HeartRails_Capture
Allow: /

nginx

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

Apache

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

05 · Block

How to block HeartRails Capture

Start with robots.txt. If HeartRails Capture keeps showing up in your logs, block it at your CDN or web server.

robots.txt

User-agent: HeartRails_Capture
Disallow: /

Cloudflare

# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "HeartRails_Capture")
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: HeartRails_Capture
Disallow: /

nginx

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

Apache

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

06 · User agents

User agents we see for HeartRails Capture

The operator does not publish a full user agent string. Requests contain the token “HeartRails_Capture”.

07 · Verification

Is it really HeartRails Capture?

HeartRails Capture’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 HeartRails Capture

What is HeartRails Capture?

HeartRails Capture is a service by HeartRails Inc. that creates thumbnail images of web pages, PDFs and Office files.

Why does HeartRails Capture visit my site?

Someone requested a thumbnail of one of your pages through the service. It then loaded the page to create the image.

HeartRails Capture is HeartRails Inc.’s other bot