What is Flowpane?

Flowpane is a bot in the monitoring and analytics bots category, operated by Flowpane Ltd.

Bot name
Flowpane
Operator
Flowpane Ltd
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
Flowpane
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
Yes

About Flowpane

Monitors governance files (robots.txt, ads.txt, security.txt, llms.txt, sitemaps) across client websites.

Monitoring bots check uptime, performance and page changes on behalf of a site owner or a third party. Allow the services you run yourself and exclude them from analytics so they do not inflate page views.

Flowpane user agent

Sample user agent strings sent by Flowpane:

  • Flowpane/1.0 (+https://crawler.flowpane.com)
  • Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Flowpane/1.0; +https://crawler.flowpane.com)

Anyone can copy a user agent string. Transfon Security also checks where each request comes from, so a request that claims to be a known crawler but comes from the wrong network is treated as a fake, not as the real crawler.

How to block Flowpane in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether Flowpane follows robots.txt. Add a rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block Flowpane from the whole site

User-agent: Flowpane
Disallow: /

Block Flowpane from some folders

User-agent: Flowpane
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow Flowpane only on some folders

User-agent: Flowpane
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow Flowpane and block other crawlers

User-agent: Flowpane
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Things to know

  • Each host needs its own file. Rules on www.example.com do not apply to shop.example.com.
  • A crawler obeys only the most specific group that names it. Once you add a User-agent: Flowpane group, Flowpane ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take Flowpane from Flowpane's user agent; check Flowpane Ltd's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.
  • Crawlers cache robots.txt, so changes can take up to a day to apply. Disallow stops crawling but does not remove pages already collected or indexed.

Limits of robots.txt

  1. Flowpane may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that Flowpane follows it. Check your logs after adding a rule.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send Flowpane's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by Flowpane Ltd's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real Flowpane from a fake one.

Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.

Who should care about Flowpane

Publishers

Allow Flowpane if it is a service you use, and keep its visits out of page views and ad requests either way.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

Flowpane is not a person. Exclude it from campaign and conversion data so reports reflect real visitors.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Allow Flowpane only if it works for your store, and keep it away from cart and checkout.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

If Flowpane is a service you use, allow it on the endpoints it needs and block it elsewhere.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block Flowpane with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows Flowpane by name in the Top Bots report, so you can see how often it visits and which pages it reads. Block or allow it with a User Agent rule, or slow it down with a rate limit decision rule.

Transfon Security

Control Flowpane on your site

  • See every Flowpane visit and the pages it reads
  • Spot bots that fake trusted crawler names
  • Block, allow or rate limit Flowpane with one rule
  • Works with or without robots.txt support

Frequently asked questions

What is Flowpane?

Flowpane is a bot in the monitoring and analytics bots category, operated by Flowpane Ltd. Monitors governance files (robots.txt, ads.txt, security.txt, llms.txt, sitemaps) across client websites.

Does Flowpane respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether Flowpane follows robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped, and block it by user agent if it did not.

How do I block Flowpane?

Add "User-agent: Flowpane" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "Flowpane/" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.

Is robots.txt enough to block Flowpane?

No. robots.txt is voluntary, so Flowpane may not follow it, and anyone can send Flowpane's user agent, so a fake Flowpane ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.

Should I block Flowpane?

Monitoring bots check uptime, performance and page changes on behalf of a site owner or a third party. Allow the services you run yourself and exclude them from analytics so they do not inflate page views.

Related bots

All monitoring and analytics bots · Full bot directory

See Which Bots Visit Your Site

Transfon Security identifies every bot in this directory in your traffic reports, flags fake search crawlers, and lets you allow, block or rate limit each bot.

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