KI-Console Connect

Description

KI-Console Connect detects known AI crawler visits server-side by matching incoming request user agents against a crawler catalog. It helps site owners see when bots such as GPTBot, ChatGPT-related fetchers and other AI crawlers request their WordPress site.

The plugin works without adding frontend JavaScript and does not track normal human visitors. Local counters in WordPress show matched crawler visits for the last 7 and 30 days.

When an API token from KI-Console is configured, the plugin validates the connected WordPress domain, caches plugin entitlements, retrieves the KI-Console tracking key automatically, syncs llms.txt content when enabled, and renders a local score badge. The badge can also be placed manually with the [kicc_badge] shortcode.

The llms.txt route, footer badge and optimizer modules are off by default. The plugin does not add frontend JavaScript and does not load external badge images, CSS or scripts.

The optional optimizer can add AI crawler robots.txt allowances, sitemap hints, conservative meta tags, Organization/WebSite schema and IndexNow pings at runtime through WordPress hooks. If a physical robots.txt exists, administrators can optionally add a clearly marked reversible KI-Console block. If the API token becomes invalid, the service is inactive, or the plugin is disabled or uninstalled, these optimizations stop automatically or are removed best effort.

The crawler catalog is cached locally and includes a bundled fallback list, so detection can continue if the remote catalog is temporarily unavailable.

External services

This plugin connects to KI-Console, a service operated by Alpasana GmbH, Switzerland.

KI-Console service: https://ki-console.com/
KI-Console terms: https://ki-console.com/agb.php
KI-Console privacy policy: https://ki-console.com/datenschutz.php

Catalog updates:
The plugin ships with the complete AI crawler catalog and works fully offline. It makes no request on activation and schedules no cron event until an administrator explicitly connects the site by storing a KI-Console API token.

Once connected, the plugin requests https://ki-console.com/ki-crawler-catalog.json daily through WordPress Cron to update the catalog and the tracking endpoint metadata. This GET request has no request body and its User-Agent header contains only the plugin name and version – the site URL is not sent, because the catalog is a public file. Administrators can also trigger this request manually from the settings screen. Removing the token stops the scheduled request and clears the cron event.

Tracking pings:
Tracking pings are sent only after the plugin has retrieved a KI-Console tracking key through a valid API token. When an incoming request matches a known crawler, the plugin sends a non-blocking POST request to https://ki-console.com/track.php. The POST body contains the tracking key, exact bot name, request path without query strings, Unix timestamp and crawler catalog version. The plugin does not send WordPress usernames, email addresses, cookies, page content or the original full user agent in the tracking POST body.

Plugin status and token validation:
If an API token is configured, the plugin can request https://ki-console.com/api.php?endpoint=plugin-status&name=<domain> to validate that the token belongs to the current WordPress domain and to retrieve plugin entitlements. These GET requests include the API token only in the Authorization header. The response is cached locally without the token and can contain website ID, domain, verification status, enabled plan features, score, public report URL, badge state, whether llms.txt is available, the tracking key and the shared IndexNow key for the connected website.

llms.txt sync:
If an API token is configured and the site administrator enables llms.txt delivery, WordPress Cron can request https://ki-console.com/api.php?endpoint=plugin-llms&id=<website_id> to download generated llms.txt content for the verified connected website. The token is sent only in the Authorization header. The plugin stores only the text content, hash, generation time and cache timestamps locally. Public /llms.txt requests are served from the local cache only and do not call KI-Console.

Badge status:
If an API token is configured, the cached plugin-status response includes score, badge label, badge state and the public report URL. The shortcode and optional footer badge render this data locally as HTML and link to the public report. They do not load an external image, JavaScript or stylesheet from KI-Console.

IndexNow:
If the site administrator enables the IndexNow optimizer module, the plugin sends URL submission requests to the IndexNow global endpoint at https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow. IndexNow is operated by the IndexNow.org sponsors for notifying participating search engines about changed URLs.

The plugin uses the shared IndexNow key returned by KI-Console for the connected website and serves /<key>.txt through a virtual WordPress route. No physical IndexNow key file is written. When posts are published or updated, the plugin sends a throttled non-blocking POST request. Administrators can also submit the homepage and latest public published posts/pages manually in one blocking batch from the admin UI. The request body contains the site host, published URLs, the IndexNow key and the virtual key location. It does not send WordPress usernames, email addresses, cookies, page content or the API token.

IndexNow service: https://www.indexnow.org/
IndexNow documentation: https://www.indexnow.org/documentation
IndexNow terms and privacy information: https://www.indexnow.org/terms