Overview
Slackbot-LinkExpanding is a link preview bot from Slack used for link unfurling, rich-card generation, social previews, messaging previews, and page metadata fetching.
Its primary user-agent pattern is Slackbot-LinkExpanding; related patterns include Slack link preview bot; a representative HTTP user-agent is Slackbot-LinkExpanding 1.0 (+https://api.slack.com/robots).
Slackbot-LinkExpanding is verified with High confidence. The identity type is Official Documented, and the evidence basis is official operator documentation.
Slackbot-LinkExpanding is marked as not reliably governed by robots.txt directives; use server-side rules if the traffic should be restricted.
Slackbot-LinkExpanding can usually be allowed after confirming the source and monitoring request volume.
Identity
- User-Agent Pattern
-
Slackbot-LinkExpanding - Aliases
- Slack link preview bot
- HTTP Agent Examples
-
Slackbot-LinkExpanding 1.0 (+https://api.slack.com/robots) - Robots Token
- Slackbot-LinkExpanding
- Identity Type
- Officially documented
- Evidence Method
- Verify Slackbot-LinkExpanding by matching `Slackbot-LinkExpanding` to Slack evidence, then checking reverse DNS, source-network ownership, signed request data, or published crawler documentation when available.
Classification
- Type
- Preview
- Kind
- Preview
- Family
- Slack
- Purpose
- Preview
Behavior and handling
- Common Use
- Slackbot-LinkExpanding is used for link unfurling, rich-card generation, social previews, messaging previews, and page metadata fetching.
- Detection Notes
- Slackbot-LinkExpanding traffic is primarily detected by the `Slackbot-LinkExpanding` user-agent pattern; related patterns include `Slack link preview bot`; a representative HTTP user-agent is `Slackbot-LinkExpanding 1.0 (+https://api.slack.com/robots)`. Compare source IPs, reverse DNS, request paths, and crawl cadence with Slack infrastructure before trusting the traffic.
- Respects robots.txt
- No
- Spoofing Risk
- Slackbot-LinkExpanding has medium spoofing risk because the user-agent can be copied, even when the bot has strong source or documentation support.
- Risk
- Safe
- Recommended Handling
- Depends
Rules and controls
- Robots.txt Snippet
-
# This agent may ignore robots.txt. Use authenticated access controls or network policy when blocking is required.
Relationships
- Operator
- Slack Checked 2026-06-23
Relationships without an Evidence link are normalized from the canonical directory record. They should not be interpreted as independent proof of physical presence or request origin.