UsefulShelfBot

UsefulShelfBot fetches pages of apps listed on UsefulShelf, and pages people submit to the free indexability checker.

User agent

UsefulShelfBot/1.0 (+https://usefulshelf.co/bot)

When it visits

• Once when an app is submitted, to read its title, Open Graph image, icon and page text for review.
• When a maker clicks Verify badge or calls the verify_badge MCP tool. Free listings need a visible badge or text credit linking to their listing.
• When someone runs the indexability checker on a URL (one page plus robots.txt and sitemap.xml).

What it does

• Fetches one HTML page. It does not run JavaScript or follow links.
• Follows up to 5 redirects and gives up after 10 seconds.
• Respects robots.txt. To block it, add User-agent: UsefulShelfBot and Disallow: /.

Badge verification

Install the badge or text credit from your dashboard on the page you submitted. It must be visible in the HTML returned by your server, with a direct link to your listing. The link may use nofollow; existing badges continue to work. We check when you request verification; removing the badge and rechecking makes a free listing private again. Featured listings do not need a badge.

How review works

The page text goes to a classifier that judges whether the site is a useful, working app. Clear cases are approved right away. Approved apps publish after badge verification or payment. Low-effort, placeholder, adult, gambling, crypto and spam sites are rejected automatically. Uncertain classifications are not approved. Unreadable websites and classifier outages stay private and can be retried from My tools or MCP; no human review is required.