01 · Operator
Who operates Slackbot
- Company
- Slack
- Type
- Social preview bot
- Official docs
- api.slack.com
02 · Behavior
What Slackbot does
Slackbot-LinkExpanding reads oEmbed, Twitter Card and Open Graph tags from shared links. Slack caches these responses globally for about 30 minutes. Slack-ImgProxy proxies images, and plain Slackbot handles other requests such as API calls and webhooks.
03 · Impact
Why Slackbot matters for your site
If you allow it
- Links shared in Slack show a title, description and image
- Requests are triggered by users sharing links
If you block it
- You do not want internal pages previewed in Slack
- Slack does not honor robots.txt, so blocking needs server rules
04 · Allow
How to allow Slackbot
robots.txt
User-agent: Slackbot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Slackbot")
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: Slackbot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "Slackbot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Slackbot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block Slackbot
Slackbot has been reported to ignore robots.txt. Block it at your CDN or web server as well.
robots.txt
# Slackbot has been reported to ignore robots.txt.
# Add a Cloudflare, nginx or Apache rule as well.
User-agent: Slackbot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Slackbot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Slackbot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Slackbot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Slackbot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for Slackbot
The user agent published by the operator:
Slackbot-LinkExpanding 1.0 (+https://api.slack.com/robots)07 · Verification
Is it really Slackbot?
Slackbot’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 Slackbot
Does Slackbot respect robots.txt?
No. Slack states it does not currently honor robots.txt files. To change how your links unfurl, Slack asks site owners to contact its support.
What is Slackbot-LinkExpanding?
It is the Slack user agent that fetches shared links to build previews. It reads oEmbed, Twitter Card and Open Graph metadata.
What other Slack user agents exist?
Slack documents Slack-ImgProxy for proxying images and Slackbot 1.0 for other requests such as API calls and outgoing webhooks.
Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026