Robots Hooks

Last updated: February 13, 2026

Filters

wp_robots

Filters the directives to be included in the robots meta tag.

apply_filters( 'wp_robots', array $robots ): array

Since: 5.7.0

Parameters:

$robots — Associative array where keys are directive names and values are either:
- true for boolean directives (e.g., noindex)
- String values for parameterized directives (e.g., max-image-preview => large)

Returns: Modified directives array

Default Callbacks:

Callback	Priority	Condition
`wp_robots_noindex`	10	Always registered
`wp_robots_noindex_embeds`	10	Always registered
`wp_robots_noindex_search`	10	Always registered
`wp_robots_max_image_preview_large`	10	Always registered
`wp_robots_no_robots`	10	Login page only

Example — Add noindex to author archives:

add_filter( 'wp_robots', function( $robots ) {
    if ( is_author() ) {
        $robots['noindex'] = true;
        $robots['follow'] = true;
    }
    return $robots;
} );

Example — Remove max-image-preview:

add_filter( 'wp_robots', function( $robots ) {
    unset( $robots['max-image-preview'] );
    return $robots;
}, 20 );

robots_txt

Filters the robots.txt output.

apply_filters( 'robots_txt', string $output, bool $public ): string

Since: 3.0.0

Parameters:

true for boolean directives (e.g., noindex)
String values for parameterized directives (e.g., max-image-preview => large)

Returns: Modified robots.txt content string

Example — Add sitemap:

css

add_filter( 'robots_txt', function( $output, $public ) {
    if ( $public ) {
        $output .= "Sitemap: " . home_url( '/sitemap.xml' ) . "n";
    }
    return $output;
}, 10, 2 );

Example — Block specific crawlers:

css

add_filter( 'robots_txt', function( $output ) {
    $output .= "nUser-agent: GPTBotn";
    $output .= "Disallow: /n";
    $output .= "nUser-agent: CCBotn";
    $output .= "Disallow: /n";
    return $output;
} );

Example — Disallow entire site for non-public:

css

add_filter( 'robots_txt', function( $output, $public ) {
    if ( ! $public ) {
        return "User-agent: *nDisallow: /n";
    }
    return $output;
}, 10, 2 );

Actions

do_robotstxt

Fires when displaying the robots.txt file.

do_action( 'do_robotstxt' )

Since: 2.1.0

Fires before the default robots.txt content is output. Headers have already been sent (Content-Type: text/plain).

Example — Log robots.txt requests:

css

add_action( 'do_robotstxt', function() {
    error_log( 'robots.txt accessed: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] );
} );

Example — Output additional content before default:

add_action( 'do_robotstxt', function() {
    echo "# Custom robots.txt for " . get_bloginfo( 'name' ) . "nn";
} );

do_robots

Action hook for serving the robots.txt file.

do_action( 'do_robots' )

Since: 2.1.0

Fired by template-loader.php when is_robots() is true. The default handler do_robots() is attached to this action.

Example — Complete custom robots.txt:

css

// Remove default handler
remove_action( 'do_robots', 'do_robots' );

// Add custom handler
add_action( 'do_robots', function() {
    header( 'Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8' );
    echo file_get_contents( ABSPATH . 'custom-robots.txt' );
} );

Hook Registration Reference

From wp-includes/default-filters.php:

// Meta robots filter callbacks
add_filter( 'wp_robots', 'wp_robots_noindex' );
add_filter( 'wp_robots', 'wp_robots_noindex_embeds' );
add_filter( 'wp_robots', 'wp_robots_noindex_search' );
add_filter( 'wp_robots', 'wp_robots_max_image_preview_large' );

// Output meta robots tag
add_action( 'wp_head', 'wp_robots', 1 );
add_action( 'login_head', 'wp_robots', 1 );
add_action( 'embed_head', 'wp_robots' );

// Login page gets noindex
if ( ... login context ... ) {
    add_filter( 'wp_robots', 'wp_robots_no_robots' );
}

// robots.txt handler
add_action( 'do_robots', 'do_robots' );

Directive Reference

Standard robots meta directives:

Directive	Type	Description
`index`	boolean	Allow indexing
`noindex`	boolean	Prevent indexing
`follow`	boolean	Follow links
`nofollow`	boolean	Don’t follow links
`noarchive`	boolean	Don’t cache/archive page
`nosnippet`	boolean	No text snippets in results
`max-snippet`	value	Max snippet length (`max-snippet:150`)
`max-image-preview`	value	Image preview size (`none`, `standard`, `large`)
`max-video-preview`	value	Video preview seconds (`-1` for unlimited)
`notranslate`	boolean	Don’t offer translation
`noimageindex`	boolean	Don’t index images
`unavailable_after`	value	Date to stop showing in results

View on GitHub