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

ShapBot is a crawler run by Parallel. It reads pages at the moment a person asks a question, to answer it. 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/shapbot with the UI removed — the content only. A browser asking for the same address gets the full designed page.

What ShapBot is

ShapBot is a crawler run by Parallel. It reads pages at the moment a person asks a question, to answer it.

Should you refuse it?

ShapBot fetches a page because a person asked about it. Refusing it means the answer that person gets is written without your page.

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 ShapBot?

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

Allowing or refusing ShapBot in robots.txt

Add one group for each name it answers to (Shap-User, ShapBot). “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 ShapBot:

User-agent: Shap-User
Disallow: /

User-agent: ShapBot
Disallow: /

Allow ShapBot:

User-agent: Shap-User
Allow: /

User-agent: ShapBot
Allow: /

Where the rule for ShapBot goes, platform by platform

Questions

What is ShapBot?

ShapBot is a crawler run by Parallel. It reads pages at the moment a person asks a question, to answer it.

Who runs ShapBot?

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

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

Add one group for each name it answers to (Shap-User, ShapBot). “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 ShapBot?

ShapBot fetches a page because a person asked about it. Refusing it means the answer that person gets is written without your page.

How do I see ShapBot in my server logs?

In an access log ShapBot appears as a user agent containing “Shap-User” or “ShapBot”.

How do I know a request is really ShapBot?

Citable holds no published address list for Parallel, so a read that claims to be ShapBot 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/shapbot · Citable · Run the free audit · llms.txt · getcitable@gmail.com