Fix Googlebot robots.txt blocking of public read-only API endpoints#165
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The public server's robots.txt had a blanket Disallow: /api/, which blocked Googlebot from fetching the JSON the public site hydrates from. JS-rendering crawlers that can't load /api/* fall back to the SSR shell and skip the second render pass, hurting indexing. The public server only exposes GET-only, rate-limited, sensitive-field- filtered endpoints by design, so emit explicit Allow: rules for each public read-only API path before the trailing Disallow: /api/ — the longest-prefix-wins rule keeps anything not on the allow-list blocked. Extracted a shared buildRobotsTxt(req) helper so the dual-server and PUBLIC_ONLY robots.txt handlers can't drift apart.
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Description
Googlebot was reporting
Blocked by robots.txtfor public read-only API endpoints (e.g./api/datasets/id/:id,/api/settings/language). The public site hydrates client-side from/api/*JSON endpoints, so when a JS-rendering crawler can't fetch those endpoints, it sees only the SSR shell and skips re-render — degrading indexing quality.The public server's
robots.txtpreviously had a blanketDisallow: /api/, which blocked all API access. However, the public server only ever exposes a curated set of GET-only, rate-limited, sensitive-field-filtered endpoints, so it's safe to expose those to crawlers.This PR updates
robots.txtto emit explicitAllow:rules for each public read-only API path before the trailingDisallow: /api/. Per Google's robots.txt spec, the longest-prefix-wins rule ensures anything not on the allow-list stays blocked by default.Changes
PUBLIC_API_ALLOW_PATHSconstant listing all safe public API endpointsbuildRobotsTxt(req)helper function to unify bothrobots.txthandlers (dual-server and PUBLIC_ONLY paths) so they can't driftrobots.txtoutput to include explicitAllow:rules for:/api/profile,/api/sections,/api/settings,/api/experiences,/api/certifications,/api/education,/api/skills,/api/projects,/api/timeline,/api/custom-sections,/api/layout-types,/api/social-platforms,/api/cv,/api/datasets/slug/,/api/datasets/id/noindexbranchesType of Change
Checklist
Required for all code changes
npm testpasses)package.json,package-lock.json,version.json)CHANGELOG.mdhas been updated with a new entry under the correct versionIf adding or changing user-visible strings
If documentation-only change
Test Plan
Added two new test cases in
tests/backend.test.js:Allow:rules inrobots.txtwhenrobotsMetais set to indexrobots.txtemits a globalDisallow: /whenrobotsMetais set tonoindexBoth handlers (dual-server and PUBLIC_ONLY) now share the same
buildRobotsTxt()function, eliminating the risk of divergence.https://claude.ai/code/session_01EahTJ7kaq3g5ze6F3MmNn6