Channel3Bot: what it is, who runs it, and how to allow or block it

Channel3Bot is a crawler run by Channel3. It reads pages ahead of time, to train a model or to build an index. Its name in robots.txt, how it shows up in server logs, whether its identity can be checked, and how to allow or refuse it on each platform.

This response

You are ClaudeBot (Anthropic). Citable recognised you as an AI agent, so this is https://getcitable.in/crawlers/channel3bot with the UI removed — the content only. A browser asking for the same address gets the full designed page.

What Channel3Bot is

Channel3Bot is a crawler run by Channel3. It reads pages ahead of time, to train a model or to build an index.

Should you refuse it?

Channel3Bot reads ahead of time. Refusing it keeps your pages out of what Channel3 collects them for. It does not change how Google or Bing rank you: search crawlers go by other names, with rules of their own.

robots.txt is a request. A crawler that honours it stays out; nothing in the file stops one that does not. What is enforced is what the server or the edge in front of it refuses.

Is a request really Channel3Bot?

Citable holds no published address list for Channel3, so a read that claims to be Channel3Bot is recorded as unknown rather than verified. A user agent is a claim, and anyone can send it.

Allowing or refusing Channel3Bot in robots.txt

Add a group under its name, “User-agent: Channel3Bot”. “Allow: /” lets it read the site and “Disallow: /” refuses it.

A group that names a crawler replaces the * group for that crawler; it does not add to it. Paths the * group closes are open to a crawler with its own group unless they are repeated there.

Refuse Channel3Bot:

User-agent: Channel3Bot
Disallow: /

Allow Channel3Bot:

User-agent: Channel3Bot
Allow: /

Where the rule for Channel3Bot goes, platform by platform

Questions

What is Channel3Bot?

Channel3Bot is a crawler run by Channel3. It reads pages ahead of time, to train a model or to build an index.

Who runs Channel3Bot?

Channel3. It is the only name Citable recognises for Channel3.

How do I allow or block Channel3Bot in robots.txt?

Add a group under its name, “User-agent: Channel3Bot”. “Allow: /” lets it read the site and “Disallow: /” refuses it. A group that names a crawler replaces the * group for that crawler; it does not add to it. Paths the * group closes are open to a crawler with its own group unless they are repeated there.

Should I block Channel3Bot?

Channel3Bot reads ahead of time. Refusing it keeps your pages out of what Channel3 collects them for. It does not change how Google or Bing rank you: search crawlers go by other names, with rules of their own.

How do I see Channel3Bot in my server logs?

In an access log Channel3Bot appears as a user agent containing “Channel3Bot”.

How do I know a request is really Channel3Bot?

Citable holds no published address list for Channel3, so a read that claims to be Channel3Bot is recorded as unknown rather than verified. A user agent is a claim, and anyone can send it.

About Citable

Citable strips the UI from a website for AI agents and serves them only the content.

When an AI agent — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or any of the 81 that Citable recognises — opens a page, Citable removes the theme, scripts, navigation and layout and serves only the content: the same facts, at the same URL, on the site's own domain. People and Google still get the full designed page.

How it works: https://getcitable.in/how-it-works · Summary for AI agents: https://getcitable.in/llms.txt


Source: https://getcitable.in/crawlers/channel3bot · Citable · Run the free audit · llms.txt · getcitable@gmail.com