m1guelpf/browser-agent

Respect `robots.txt`

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#2 opened on Mar 26, 2023

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 (1 comment) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Rust (721 stars) (68 forks)user submission
enhancementgood first issuehelp wanted

Description

ML-based bots need to respect the norms as all the other bots on the web. That means providing an identifiable user agent, loading robots.txt, and avoiding requests to places that robots.txt bans it from.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
rust
Domain
backend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
Rust basicsHTTP requestsrobots.txt parsing
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
60
Research direction
Implement robots.txt respect in the browser agent Rust codebase. Look at the current HTTP client setup (likely in src/lib.rs or similar). Add a user agent string, fetch robots.txt before each request, and parse it using a crate like `robotparser`. The agent should skip paths disallowed by robots.txt. Check if there are existing tests or integration points in the repository.