A TypeScript library for detecting and categorizing bots from user agent strings
npm install browser-bot-detectorA lightweight, efficient library for detecting bots, crawlers, and spiders by analyzing user agent strings.
- Detects bots, crawlers, and spiders based on user agent strings
- Categorizes bots by type (AI, search, social, analytics, monitoring)
- Lightweight with zero dependencies
- Highly customizable with allow and deny lists
- TypeScript support
- Works in both Node.js and browser environments
- Compatible with Next.js (server-side and client-side)
``bash`
npm install browser-agent-detectoror
yarn add browser-agent-detector
javascript
import { botdetect } from 'browser-agent-detector';// Check if a user agent is a bot
const isBot = botdetect('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)');
console.log(isBot); // true
// Human user agents return false
const isBrowser = botdetect('Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) Chrome/91.0.4472.124 Safari/537.36');
console.log(isBrowser); // false
// Handles null/undefined gracefully
console.log(botdetect(null)); // false
`$3
javascript
import { botMatch, botMatches } from 'browser-agent-detector';// Get the first matching pattern
const matchedPattern = botMatch('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)');
console.log(matchedPattern); // 'googlebot'
// Get all matching patterns
const allMatches = botMatches('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)');
console.log(allMatches); // ['googlebot', 'bot']
`$3
javascript
import { botCategory } from 'browser-agent-detector';// Categorize bots by type
console.log(botCategory('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)')); // 'search'
console.log(botCategory('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; GPTBot/1.0; +https://openai.com/gptbot)')); // 'ai'
console.log(botCategory('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Twitterbot/1.0)')); // 'social'
console.log(botCategory('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AhrefsBot/7.0; +http://ahrefs.com/robot/)')); // 'analytics'
console.log(botCategory('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; UptimeRobot/2.0)')); // 'monitoring'
console.log(botCategory('Some unknown bot')); // 'other'
console.log(botCategory('Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) Chrome/91.0.4472.124')); // null (not a bot)
`$3
javascript
import { createBotDetect } from 'browser-agent-detector';// Create a custom detector with your own rules
const customDetect = createBotDetect({
// Patterns that should NOT be considered bots even if they match bot patterns
allowList: ['friendly-bot', 'my-custom-tool'],
// Additional patterns to consider as bots
denyList: ['evil-scraper', 'unwanted-crawler']
});
console.log(customDetect('Mozilla/5.0 friendly-bot/1.0')); // false
console.log(customDetect('Mozilla/5.0 evil-scraper/1.0')); // true
`Next.js Integration
$3
javascript
// pages/index.js
import { botdetect, botCategory } from 'browser-agent-detector';export default function Home({ isBot, botType }) {
return (
{isBot ? (
Bot-friendly content (Type: {botType || 'unknown'})
) : (
Human-friendly content
)}
);
}export async function getServerSideProps({ req }) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'];
const isBot = botdetect(userAgent);
const botType = botCategory(userAgent);
return {
props: {
isBot,
botType
}
};
}
`$3
javascript
// middleware.js
import { NextResponse } from 'next/server';
import { botdetect, botCategory } from 'browser-agent-detector';export function middleware(request) {
const userAgent = request.headers.get('user-agent');
const isBot = botdetect(userAgent);
const botType = botCategory(userAgent);
// Add bot info to request headers
const requestHeaders = new Headers(request.headers);
requestHeaders.set('x-is-bot', isBot.toString());
if (botType) {
requestHeaders.set('x-bot-type', botType);
}
return NextResponse.next({
request: {
headers: requestHeaders,
},
});
}
`AI Bot Detection
The library includes specific detection for AI bots from major providers:
javascript
import { botdetect, botCategory } from 'browser-agent-detector';// Detect AI bots
console.log(botdetect('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; GPTBot/1.0; +https://openai.com/gptbot)')); // true
console.log(botdetect('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ClaudeBot/0.1; +https://www.anthropic.com/claude-bot)')); // true
console.log(botdetect('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; BardBot/1.0; +https://bard.google.com/bot)')); // true
console.log(botdetect('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://www.perplexity.ai/bot)')); // true
// All AI bots are categorized as 'ai'
console.log(botCategory('Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; GPTBot/1.0; +https://openai.com/gptbot)')); // 'ai'
`Browser Usage
javascript
import { botdetect, botCategory } from 'browser-agent-detector';// In a React component
useEffect(() => {
const userAgent = navigator.userAgent;
const isBot = botdetect(userAgent);
const botType = botCategory(userAgent);
if (!isBot) {
// Load heavy resources or analytics only for human users
loadAnalytics();
} else if (botType === 'ai') {
// Special handling for AI bots
prepareAIFriendlyContent();
}
}, []);
``MIT
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.