Bot fight mode: what it does, and what it can block

Bot fight mode is a setting on your site's edge network. It looks at every request before it reaches your site and challenges traffic that behaves like an automated program rather than a person — scrapers, content thieves, spam tools and vulnerability scanners.

Is it on for my site?

It is off unless you switch it on. We never switch it on for you, on any hosting plan.

To check, open Sites, choose the site, open the CDN tab and look at Security and bot control → Bot fight mode. The switch shows the setting that is actually in force at the edge, read back each time you open the card.

What can it block?

Anything automated. Before you switch it on, think about what reaches your site that is not a person with a browser:

• Uptime monitors that fetch your pages on a schedule — including ones you pay for elsewhere.
• Payment providers' callbacks and other services that post to your site to tell it

something happened.

• Some crawlers. Search engines' verified crawlers, such as Googlebot and Bingbot, are

recognised and let through, but SEO tools, link checkers, feed readers and smaller crawlers may be challenged.

• Scripts or tools you run yourself against your own site.

If one of these stops working after you switch bot fight mode on, that is the likely cause — switch it off again.

How do I switch it on or off?

Open the site's CDN tab, find Bot fight mode under Security and bot control, and use the switch. The change is made at the edge straight away and the card reads it back.

The switch is greyed out or refused

• "We could not read your bot settings" — our access to that setting on the part of the edge

network your site uses is being upgraded. Nothing is wrong with your site; try again later.

• The site uses a shared preview address — a site that is still on its preview address shares

its edge settings with every other site on that address, so they cannot be changed for one site. Connect your own domain and the controls become available.

• You do not have permission — changing security settings needs the manage CDN permission

in your organisation. Ask an owner of the organisation.