Describe the paths crawlers should skip and get a valid robots.txt file plus the workspace to manage it: a directive table, and an AI agent that re-checks the rules after every site change. Copy the output to your domain root, or clone the app as living documentation of your crawl policy. Free to build and clone, no syntax guesswork, and no accidentally blocking the pages that make you money.
TL;DR: Get the file first. Say which paths crawlers should skip and the directives come back ready to copy. Then keep the workspace that comes with it, which tracks every directive, links each rule to the URL pattern it governs, and runs an agent to catch conflicts before Google does. Build yours free →
What Is a Robots.txt File?
A robots.txt file is a plain text file at your domain root — https://example.com/robots.txt — that tells search engine crawlers which URL paths they may request. It is a crawl-control file, not an access-control file: it shapes where bots spend crawl budget, and it is the standard place to publish your XML sitemap location. It does not hide a page from search results. A blocked URL can still appear in Google with no snippet, so removal belongs to a noindex tag alongside your meta descriptions and title tags.
Taskade builds the file and the system around it. Every directive becomes a record you can annotate, link to a redirect map or a .htaccess rule, and revisit when nobody remembers why /tmp/ was blocked.
Crawl Rules Plus a Workspace: What You Get
Producing the file is the easy part. Remembering why each line is there, six months and two site launches later, is what Taskade adds on top.
| What you get | A one-off robots.txt file | Taskade |
|---|---|---|
| The file itself | Valid directives, generated once | Same directives, plus a record per rule |
| Reason for each rule | Not captured | Notes field, owner, and date on every directive |
| Sitemap directive | Manual paste | Pulled from your sitemap generator |
| Conflict checking | Up to you | Agent flags overlapping Allow and Disallow paths |
| Ongoing review | You remember, or you don't | Automations re-check the live file on a schedule |
| Handoff to a client or dev | Paste into an email | Share link, role-based access from Owner to Viewer, no re-export |
Robots.txt Directives You Can Generate
Every line below is generated from plain language — say "keep bots out of checkout and search results" and you get the directives, not a syntax reference.
| Directive | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
User-agent |
Opens a rule block for one crawler, or * for all |
User-agent: * |
Disallow |
Blocks a path prefix from being requested | Disallow: /cart/ |
Allow |
Carves an exception out of a broader Disallow | Allow: /cart/help |
Sitemap |
Publishes your sitemap URL, absolute and root-relative | Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml |
* wildcard |
Matches any run of characters inside a path | Disallow: /*?sort= |
$ end anchor |
Matches only the end of a URL | Disallow: /*.pdf$ |
Starting Points by Platform
Name your platform in the prompt and the generator opens with the paths that platform conventionally keeps out of the index, then adapts them to your site. These are starting points to review, not defaults to ship blind.
| Platform | Commonly blocked | Worth keeping crawlable |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress | /wp-admin/ |
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php |
| Shopify and other ecommerce | /cart, /checkout, /account |
Collection and product URLs |
| Any site with faceted search | Filter and sort parameters such as /*?sort= |
The clean category URL underneath |
| Sites with an internal search page | /search and its query strings |
Everything the search page links to |
| Staging or preview subdomains | Disallow: / on that host only |
Nothing, that host should stay out |
Remember that a Disallow on a CSS or JavaScript path can stop Google rendering the page it is trying to rank. Block routes, not the assets a page needs to paint.
Blocking AI Crawlers
Blocking AI training and answer bots is a User-agent block per crawler, each with Disallow: / beneath it. The common ones are GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended. Ask the generator for "block AI crawlers but keep search engines" and it writes each one as its own record, so you can allow a single crawler back later without rewriting the file. Compliance with robots.txt is voluntary for every bot, so pair it with the .htaccess generator when you need enforcement rather than a request.
Generate a Robots.txt File in Six Steps
Open the generator above and describe your site — the platform, the sections that should stay private, and the query parameters that create duplicate URLs.
Review the generated directive table. Each row shows the rule, the paths it matches, and a plain-English explanation.
Ask the built-in agent to test edge cases: "does this block my blog?" or "will Googlebot reach the pricing page?" It answers against your actual rule set.
Copy the finished file to your domain root, or hand the workspace to whoever owns deployment.
Switch project views — Table to audit directives side by side, Board to sort rules by risk, List for handoff.
Keep the app. When you launch a new section, add the rule as a record, not an untracked edit to a text file.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the robots.txt generator free?
Yes. Generate and clone the robots.txt app on the free plan — no credit card and no export limit (published free apps carry a small "Powered by Taskade" badge, removed on any paid plan). On Free, you earn free AI credits as you go, and you can upgrade any time. Paid plans start at $10/month total for up to 10 members, billed annually, for more usage or a larger team.
How do I create a robots.txt file for my website?
Describe your site in the generator above — platform, private sections, and query parameters that create duplicate URLs — and the AI writes the directives. It runs on frontier models from top AI labs, so it recognizes conventions like WordPress /wp-admin/ or Shopify /cart/ unprompted. Review the table, then copy the file or clone the workspace.
Where do I put the robots.txt file?
At the root of each host and protocol you serve, named exactly robots.txt in lowercase: https://example.com/robots.txt. A file at /blog/robots.txt is ignored entirely. Subdomains need their own file — shop.example.com does not inherit rules from example.com. The Sitemap line is the exception to path scoping: it takes a full absolute URL and may point anywhere you control.
Can robots.txt remove a page from Google?
No, and this is the mistake that costs the most traffic. Disallow stops crawlers from requesting a URL, but a blocked URL can still be indexed from external links and shown without a snippet. Google also cannot see a noindex tag on a page it may not fetch. To remove a page, allow the crawl and serve noindex.
How do I block AI crawlers and scrapers?
Add a User-agent block for each bot you want to exclude — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, CCBot, and Google-Extended are the common ones — with Disallow: / beneath it. The generator keeps each block as a separate record, so you can allow one crawler later without rewriting the file. Compliance is voluntary, so pair it with the .htaccess generator for enforcement.
Does robots.txt support wildcards and regular expressions?
Wildcards yes, full regular expressions no. Google and Bing support * for any run of characters and $ to anchor the end of a URL, covering patterns like Disallow: /*?session= or Disallow: /*.pdf$. Paths are case-sensitive, and Google ignores Crawl-delay entirely. The generator only emits directives the major crawlers honor, so you never ship a rule that quietly does nothing.
Can I share my crawl rules with a client or developer?
Yes. Share one link and your developer, agency, or client opens the same directive table, comments on a rule, and sees the reasoning behind it. Granular role-based access from Owner to Viewer (Owner through Viewer) decide who edits versus reads, and Pro plans ($10/month billed annually) add a custom domain for a client-facing page, with unlimited members on Business ($25/month total, billed annually). No re-exporting.
Can I automate robots.txt checks after a site change?
Yes. Pair AI Agents with workflow automations so a deploy or a schedule triggers a fetch of your live robots.txt and a diff against the approved rule set. Agents ship with built-in tools including web access, and 100+ integrations route the alert to Slack or open a task. Start from automation triggers, or the Taskade Genesis FAQ.
Build Your Whole Technical SEO Stack From One Prompt
Robots.txt is one file in a crawl-and-index system. Each tool below starts from the same prompt:
Sitemap Generator: build the XML sitemap your robots.txt points to, in the same workspace.
Redirect Map Generator: redirect old URLs instead of blocking them, the most common robots.txt mistake.
.htaccess Generator: handle what robots.txt cannot, namely access control and server-level rewrites.
SEO Audit Report Generator: catch blocked resources, orphan pages, and crawl waste.
Technical SEO Auditor and Search Console Data Analyzer: agents that run the recurring checks.
Sitemap Indexer and Change Detector: automations that watch the live file for you.