Botkibble

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

Author:	gregrandall (profile at wordpress.org)
WordPress version required:	6.0
WordPress version tested:	6.9.1
Plugin version:	1.3.0
Added to WordPress repository:	26-02-2026
Last updated:	26-02-2026
Rating, %:	0
Rated by:	0
Plugin URI:	https://github.com/greg-randall/botkibble
Total downloads:	204
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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. Cloudflare measured 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 Markdown for Agents 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.

GitHub Repository

Three ways to request Markdown:

.md suffix: append .md to any post or page URL (e.g. example.com/my-post.md)
Query parameter: add ?format=markdown to any post or page URL
Content negotiation: send Accept: text/markdown in the request header

What’s in every response:

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)
Clean Markdown converted from fully-rendered post HTML (shortcodes run, filters applied)
Content-Type: text/markdown and Vary: Accept response headers
Content-Signal header for AI signal declaration — defaults to ai-train=no, search=yes, ai-input=yes — see contentsignals.org
X-Markdown-Tokens header with estimated token count
Discovery via <link rel="alternate"> in the HTML head and Link HTTP header
Automatic cache invalidation when a post is updated or deleted

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 init hook, before the main database query runs. No extra configuration needed.

Add a web server rewrite rule and Botkibble bypasses PHP entirely, serving .md 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:

Drafts, private posts, and password-protected content return 403 Forbidden
Rate limits cache-miss regenerations (20/min by default) to mitigate DoS abuse
X-Robots-Tag: noindex keeps Markdown versions out of search results
Link: rel="canonical" points search engines back to the HTML version

Cache variants (optional):

You can persist alternate cached representations by adding ?botkibble_variant=slim (or any other variant name).
Variant caches are stored under:

/wp-content/uploads/botkibble/_v/<variant>/<slug>.md

What it does NOT do:

Expose drafts, private posts, or password-protected content
Serve non-post/page content types by default
Require any configuration. Activate and it works.

Why Markdown?

HTML is expensive for AI systems to process. Cloudflare measured 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 Markdown for Agents at the CDN edge via the Accept: text/markdown 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 .md suffix URLs, ?format=markdown query parameters, YAML frontmatter, static file caching, and server-level offloading.

If you use Cloudflare, both share the same Accept: text/markdown header, Content-Signal headers, and X-Markdown-Tokens response headers.

Cloudflare currently defaults to Content-Signal: ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes with no way to change it. Botkibble defaults to ai-train=no and lets you override the full signal per site via the botkibble_content_signal filter.

Performance & Static Offloading

This plugin supports static file offloading by writing Markdown content to /wp-content/uploads/botkibble/.

Nginx Configuration

To bypass PHP entirely and have Nginx serve the files (including variants) directly:

# 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;
}

Apache (.htaccess)

Add this to your .htaccess before the WordPress rules:

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]

Even without these rules, the plugin uses a “Fast-Path” that serves cached files from PHP before the main database query is executed.

Credits

We thank Cristi Constantin (https://github.com/cristi-constantin) for contributing cache variants, URL and SEO improvements, and fixing important bugs.

FAQ

How do I add support for custom post types?

The plugin only serves posts and pages by default. To add a custom post type, use the botkibble_served_post_types filter in your theme or a custom plugin:

add_filter( 'botkibble_served_post_types', function ( $types ) {
    $types[] = 'docs';
    return $types;
} );

Be careful. Only add post types that contain public content. Do not expose post types that may contain private or sensitive data (e.g. WooCommerce orders).

What does the YAML frontmatter include?

Every response starts with a YAML block containing:

title — the post title
date — publish date in ISO 8601 format
type — post type (e.g. post, page)
word_count — word count of the Markdown body
char_count — character count of the Markdown body
tokens — estimated token count (word_count × 1.3)
categories — array of category names (posts only)
tags — array of tag names (posts only, omitted if none)

Example:

---
title: My Post Title
date: '2025-06-01T12:00:00+00:00'
type: post
word_count: 842
char_count: 4981
tokens: 1095
categories:
  - Technology
tags:
  - wordpress
  - markdown
---

How do I add custom fields to the frontmatter?

Use the botkibble_frontmatter filter:

add_filter( 'botkibble_frontmatter', function ( $data, $post ) {
    $data['excerpt'] = get_the_excerpt( $post );
    return $data;
}, 10, 2 );

How do I change the Content-Signal header?

Use the botkibble_content_signal filter:

add_filter( 'botkibble_content_signal', function ( $signal, $post ) {
    return 'ai-train=no, search=yes, ai-input=yes';
}, 10, 2 );

Return an empty string to omit the header entirely.

Can I change the token count estimation?

Yes, use the botkibble_token_multiplier filter. The default multiplier of 1.3 (word count × 1.3) comes from Cloudflare’s implementation:

add_filter( 'botkibble_token_multiplier', function () {
    return 1.5; // Adjusted for a different model's tokenizer
} );

How do I adjust the rate limit?

Cache misses (when a post needs to be converted) are limited to 20 per minute globally. You can change this with the botkibble_regen_rate_limit filter:

add_filter( 'botkibble_regen_rate_limit', function () {
    return 50; 
} );

Can I add custom HTML cleanup rules?

Yes, use the botkibble_clean_html filter. This runs after the default cleanup and before conversion:

add_filter( 'botkibble_clean_html', function ( $html ) {
    // Remove a plugin's wrapper divs
    $html = preg_replace( '/<div class="my-plugin-wrapper">(.*?)<\/div>/s', '$1', $html );
    return $html;
} );

Can I strip script nodes during conversion?

Yes. Botkibble keeps converter node removal disabled by default (for backward compatibility), but you can opt in with botkibble_converter_remove_nodes:

add_filter( 'botkibble_converter_remove_nodes', function ( $nodes ) {
    $nodes = is_array( $nodes ) ? $nodes : [];
    $nodes[] = 'script';
    return $nodes;
} );

If you also need application/ld+json, extract it in botkibble_clean_html first, then let converter-level script removal clean up any remaining script tags.

How do I modify the body before metrics are calculated?

Use the botkibble_body filter. This is the best place to add content like ld+json that you want included in the word count and token estimation:

add_filter( 'botkibble_body', function ( $body, $post ) {
    $json_ld = '<script type="application/ld+json">...</script>';
    return $body . "\n\n" . $json_ld;
}, 10, 2 );

How do I modify the final Markdown output?

Use the botkibble_output filter to append or modify the text after conversion:

add_filter( 'botkibble_output', function ( $markdown, $post ) {
    return $markdown . "\n\n---\nServed by Botkibble";
}, 10, 2 );

Can I cache multiple Markdown variants (e.g. a slim version)?

Yes. Add ?botkibble_variant=slim when requesting Markdown to generate and serve a separate cached file. To ensure your variants are invalidated on post updates, return them from the botkibble_cache_variants filter:

add_filter( 'botkibble_cache_variants', function ( $variants, $post ) {
    $variants[] = 'slim';
    return $variants;
}, 10, 2 );

Can I disable the Accept header detection?

Yes, if you only want to serve Markdown via explicit URLs (.md or ?format=markdown), use the botkibble_enable_accept_header filter:

add_filter( 'botkibble_enable_accept_header', '__return_false' );

Does the .md suffix work with all permalink structures?

It works with the most common structures (post name, page hierarchy). Complex date-based permalink structures may require the query parameter or Accept header method instead.

What about password-protected posts?

They return a 403 Forbidden response. There’s no point serving a password form to a bot.

What are the response headers?

Content-Type: text/markdown; charset=utf-8
Vary: Accept — tells caches that responses vary by Accept header
X-Markdown-Tokens: <count> — estimated token count (word_count × 1.3)
X-Robots-Tag: noindex — prevents search engines from indexing the Markdown version
Link: <url>; rel="canonical" — points search engines to the original HTML post
Link: <url>; rel="alternate" — advertises the Markdown version for discovery
Content-Signal: ai-train=no, search=yes, ai-input=yes — see contentsignals.org

Hide FAQ

ChangeLog

Choose right WordPress plugin from thousands others in a moment

Why Markdown?

Performance & Static Offloading

Nginx Configuration

Apache (.htaccess)

Credits

1.3.0

1.2.1

1.2.0

1.1.2

1.1.0

1.0.0