HumanGate

HumanGate protects your WordPress site from AI training crawlers, search engine bots, and unauthorized scraping bots. Add global refusal signals (meta tags, HTTP headers, robots.txt), actively block bots (AI crawlers, scrapers, etc.), and deter large-scale bot extraction with lightweight JavaScript challenges—all without CAPTCHAs or heavy databases.

Perfect for: * Journalists protecting sensitive content * Activists and independent creators * Nonprofits and whistleblower support projects * Anyone wanting to opt out of AI training data collection

Core Features:

• Block Search Engines – Clear, top-level setting to block all search engines (Google, Bing, etc.) via noindex/nofollow meta tags
• Global AI Refusal – Adds AI-specific meta tags, HTTP headers (X-AI-Training), and robots.txt rules to refuse AI training crawlers
• Active Enforcement Modes – Choose from Signals Only (default), Challenge Mode (JS verification), or Block Mode (403 Forbidden) for AI crawlers and other bots
• Bot Challenge System – Automatically detects suspicious bot traffic patterns (burst traffic, sequential traversal, deep-link access) and serves lightweight JavaScript challenges to all bots—not just AI crawlers
• Emergency Lockdown – One-click site lockdown with HTTP 451 responses and optional login-only access
• SEO Plugin Compatible – Works seamlessly with Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, and other SEO plugins
• Privacy-Focused Stats – Lightweight telemetry using WordPress transients (no database bloat, no IP storage)
• Performance Optimized – DNS lookup caching and user agent pattern caching for faster response times
• Whitelist Support – IP address and user agent whitelists to bypass blocking for trusted sources

How It Works:

1. Block Search Engines – Optional setting to block all search engines (Google, Bing, etc.) using noindex/nofollow meta tags. This is a separate, clear setting at the top of the plugin configuration.

2. AI Refusal Signals – Adds AI-specific meta tags, HTTP headers, and robots.txt rules that tell AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, etc.) not to train on your content. This works independently from search engine blocking.

3. Active Enforcement – Optionally block or challenge bots at the HTTP level:

   • Signals Only (default): Sends refusal signals only
   • Challenge Mode: Requires JavaScript execution verification for all bots
   • Block Mode: Returns 403 Forbidden to AI crawlers and other unauthorized bots

4. Selective Friction – Automatically detects bot scraping patterns and serves invisible JavaScript challenges to any suspicious traffic:

   • Burst traffic detection (12+ pages in 5 seconds) – catches all bots, not just AI crawlers
   • Sequential traversal detection (machine-like pagination)
   • Deep-link access detection (direct access to old content)
   • Auto-completing challenges (no user interaction required)
   • Works against all types of bots: AI training crawlers, scrapers, data harvesters, etc.

5. Emergency Lockdown – Instantly lock down your site with one toggle, returning HTTP 451 responses with optional login-only access.

Design Philosophy:

HumanGate doesn’t try to perfectly identify machines. Instead, it makes large-scale extraction economically inefficient while keeping the experience invisible to 99% of real human users. No CAPTCHAs, no heavy databases, just lightweight protection.

Development

For development, bug reports, and contributions, please visit the plugin’s GitHub repository at https://github.com/NomadBuilder/HumanGate