gregrandall

AI agents, LLMs, and crawlers have to wade through navigation bars, sidebars, ads, and comment forms to reach the content they want, and every element costs tokens. <a href="https://blog.cloudflare.com/markdown-for-agents/" rel="nofollow ugc">Cloudflare measured</a> an 80% reduction in token usage when converting a blog post from HTML to Markdown (16,180 tokens down to 3,150).
Botkibble adds a Markdown endpoint to every published post and page.
Cloudflare offers <a href="https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/reference/markdown-for-agents/" rel="nofollow ugc">Markdown for Agents</a> at the CDN edge on Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans. Botkibble does the same thing (for free) at the origin, so it works on any host.
<a href="https://github.com/greg-randall/botkibble" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub Repository</a>
Three ways to request Markdown:
<ul>
<li><code>.md</code> suffix: append <code>.md</code> to any post or page URL (e.g. <code>example.com/my-post.md</code>)</li>
<li>Query parameter: add <code>?format=markdown</code> to any post or page URL</li>
<li>Content negotiation: send <code>Accept: text/markdown</code> in the request header</li>
</ul>
What’s in every response:
<ul>
<li>Structured metadata header with title, date, categories, tags, word count, character count, and estimated token count (in YAML frontmatter format, readable by any AI agent)</li>
<li>Clean Markdown converted from fully-rendered post HTML (shortcodes run, filters applied)</li>
<li><code>Content-Type: text/markdown</code> and <code>Vary: Accept</code> response headers</li>
<li><code>Content-Signal</code> header for AI signal declaration — defaults to <code>ai-train=no, search=yes, ai-input=yes</code> — see <a href="https://contentsignals.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">contentsignals.org</a></li>
<li><code>X-Markdown-Tokens</code> header with estimated token count</li>
<li>Discovery via <code><link rel="alternate"></code> in the HTML head and <code>Link</code> HTTP header</li>
<li>Automatic cache invalidation when a post is updated or deleted</li>
</ul>
Performance:
Botkibble writes Markdown to disk on the first request, then serves it as a static file. A built-in Fast-Path serves cached files during WordPress’s <code>init</code> hook, before the main database query runs. No extra configuration needed.
Add a web server rewrite rule and Botkibble bypasses PHP entirely, serving <code>.md</code> files the same way a server would serve an image or CSS file:
 Method 
 Avg. response time
 Standard HTML 
 0.97s
 Markdown (cold, first request) 
 0.95s
 Markdown (cached, PHP Fast-Path) 
 0.87s
 Markdown (Nginx/Apache direct) 
 0.11s
Serving directly from disk is 88% faster than a full WordPress page load. See the Performance section below for Nginx and Apache configuration.
Security:
<ul>
<li>Drafts, private posts, and password-protected content return <code>403 Forbidden</code></li>
<li>Rate limits cache-miss regenerations (20/min by default) to mitigate DoS abuse</li>
<li><code>X-Robots-Tag: noindex</code> keeps Markdown versions out of search results</li>
<li><code>Link: rel="canonical"</code> points search engines back to the HTML version</li>
</ul>
Cache variants (optional):
You can persist alternate cached representations by adding <code>?botkibble_variant=slim</code> (or any other variant name). 
Variant caches are stored under:
<pre><code>/wp-content/uploads/botkibble/_v/<variant>/<slug>.md
</code></pre>
What it does NOT do:
<ul>
<li>Expose drafts, private posts, or password-protected content</li>
<li>Serve non-post/page content types by default</li>
<li>Require any configuration. Activate and it works.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Why Markdown?</h3>
HTML is expensive for AI systems to process. <a href="https://blog.cloudflare.com/markdown-for-agents/" rel="nofollow ugc">Cloudflare measured</a> an 80% reduction in token usage when converting a blog post from HTML to Markdown (16,180 tokens down to 3,150).
Cloudflare now offers <a href="https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/reference/markdown-for-agents/" rel="nofollow ugc">Markdown for Agents</a> at the CDN edge via the <code>Accept: text/markdown</code> header, available on Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans.
This plugin does the same thing at the origin, so it works on any host. It also adds <code>.md</code> suffix URLs, <code>?format=markdown</code> query parameters, YAML frontmatter, static file caching, and server-level offloading.
If you use Cloudflare, both share the same <code>Accept: text/markdown</code> header, <code>Content-Signal</code> headers, and <code>X-Markdown-Tokens</code> response headers.
Cloudflare currently defaults to <code>Content-Signal: ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes</code> with no way to change it. Botkibble defaults to <code>ai-train=no</code> and lets you override the full signal per site via the <code>botkibble_content_signal</code> filter.
<h3>Performance & Static Offloading</h3>
This plugin supports static file offloading by writing Markdown content to <code>/wp-content/uploads/botkibble/</code>.
<h3>Nginx Configuration</h3>
To bypass PHP entirely and have Nginx serve the files (including variants) directly:
<pre><code># Variants
location ~* ^/(_v/[^/]+/.+)\.md$ {
 default_type text/markdown;
 try_files /wp-content/uploads/botkibble/$1.md /index.php?$args;
}

# Default
location ~* ^/(.+)\.md$ {
 default_type text/markdown;
 try_files /wp-content/uploads/botkibble/$1.md /index.php?$args;
}
</code></pre>
<h3>Apache (.htaccess)</h3>
Add this to your <code>.htaccess</code> before the WordPress rules:
<pre><code>RewriteEngine On
# Variants
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/wp-content/uploads/botkibble/_v/$1/$2.md -f
RewriteRule ^_v/([^/]+)/(.+)\.md$ /wp-content/uploads/botkibble/_v/$1/$2.md [L,T=text/markdown]

# Default
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/wp-content/uploads/botkibble/$1.md -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.md$ /wp-content/uploads/botkibble/$1.md [L,T=text/markdown]
</code></pre>
Even without these rules, the plugin uses a “Fast-Path” that serves cached files from PHP before the main database query is executed.
<h3>Credits</h3>
We thank Cristi Constantin (https://github.com/cristi-constantin) for contributing cache variants, URL and SEO improvements, and fixing important bugs.

Botkibble

Serves every published post and page as Markdown for AI agents and crawlers. No configuration, no API keys. Activate and it works.

Azey

AI agents from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and others read your content to generate answers — but they parse through HTML, JavaScript, and navigation just to reach it. Serve Markdown gives them a direct path: clean Markdown with structured metadata. When a crawler requests it — via an <code>Accept: text/markdown</code> header or a <code>.md</code> URL — your site responds instantly. No noise, no guesswork.
<h4>How It Works</h4>
Serve Markdown adds three capabilities to your WordPress site:
1. Content Negotiation 
When an AI crawler sends <code>Accept: text/markdown</code>, your site returns Markdown instead of HTML — no URL changes needed.
2. .md URL Suffix 
Append <code>.md</code> to any post or page URL (e.g. <code>example.com/my-article.md</code>) to get the Markdown version directly.
3. Markdown Auto-Discovery 
Every page includes a <code><link rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"></code> tag in the HTML head so crawlers can find your Markdown automatically.
<h4>What the Markdown Output Looks Like</h4>
Every Markdown response includes YAML frontmatter with structured metadata followed by your post content. Here is a real example:
<pre>
---
url: 'https://akumarjain.com/textexpander-year-in-review-2025/'
title: TextExpander Year in Review 2025
author:
 name: Ajay
 url: 'https://akumarjain.com/author/akumarjain/'
date: '2026-01-05T09:05:00+05:30'
modified: '2026-01-10T14:30:06+05:30'
type: post
categories:
 - 2025
 - Year in Review
tags:
 - '#ToolsIUse'
 - Productivity
 - Remote Work
image: 'https://akumarjain.com/wp-content/uploads/text-expander-year-in-review-2025.webp'
published: true
---

# TextExpander Year in Review 2025

In my daily work, I need to type the same words and phrases repeatedly...
</pre>
<h4>Features</h4>
Content Serving
<ul>
<li>Content negotiation via <code>Accept: text/markdown</code> header</li>
<li><code>.md</code> URL suffix on any post or page</li>
<li>Auto-discovery <code><link rel="alternate"></code> tag in page head</li>
<li>Each feature can be toggled independently</li>
<li>Choose which post types are exposed (posts, pages, custom post types)</li>
</ul>
Frontmatter and Metadata
<ul>
<li>YAML frontmatter with title, author, date, categories, tags, featured image, and more</li>
<li>Toggle individual metadata fields on or off</li>
<li>Add custom static key-value pairs (e.g., <code>license</code>, <code>language</code>)</li>
<li>Map WordPress custom fields (post meta) into the frontmatter</li>
</ul>
Access Control
<ul>
<li>Per-post opt-out via a sidebar checkbox in the editor</li>
<li>Exclude entire categories from Markdown serving</li>
<li>Exclude entire tags from Markdown serving</li>
<li>Only published posts are served — drafts and private posts are never exposed</li>
</ul>
Crawler Insights
<ul>
<li>Request log showing every Markdown request with timestamp, URL, bot name, and method</li>
<li>Automatic bot detection: ClaudeBot, GPTBot, ChatGPT, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot, Bingbot, Cohere, Meta AI, Bytespider, Applebot, and more</li>
<li>Stats dashboard: total requests, requests today, unique bots</li>
<li>Filter log by individual bot</li>
<li>Configurable retention period with automatic pruning</li>
<li>One-click log clearing</li>
</ul>
Editor Integration
<ul>
<li>“Preview Markdown” button in the post editor sidebar</li>
<li>“View Markdown” link in the Posts and Pages list table</li>
<li>Meta box shows on all enabled post types</li>
</ul>
<h4>Performance</h4>
Markdown conversion only runs when specifically requested — regular visitors see the same HTML pages they always have. The crawler log uses a lightweight custom table with three safeguards against unbounded growth: time-based retention, a row count cap, and a table size cap.
<h4>Privacy</h4>
The crawler log stores IP addresses and user-agent strings from Markdown requests. This data stays in your WordPress database and is never sent to external services. You can disable logging entirely, configure a retention period, or clear the log at any time from the settings page.

Serve Markdown

Serve Markdown versions of your posts and pages to AI agents and crawlers. Content negotiation, .md URLs, auto-discovery, and crawler logging.

Botkibble vs Serve Markdown