Anubis
A web firewall that challenges incoming requests to block AI scraper bots from your site.
- Stars
- 23.9k
- Forks
- 803
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- Go
- Last update
- 4 days ago
- Type
- App
What it is
Anubis is a web application firewall utility that sits in front of a website and runs challenges on incoming connections to filter out scraper bots. The README describes it as a way to protect small sites from floods of requests from AI companies. It is presented as a fairly blunt tool: it can also block smaller scrapers and some good bots, such as the Internet Archive, unless you configure allowlists.
- Putting Anubis in front of a self-hosted website to reduce scraper load
- Writing bot policy definitions to allowlist specific crawlers you want to keep
- Protecting upstream resources when a CDN-based solution is not an option
Great for
- Operators of small websites or self-hosted services being overwhelmed by AI crawler traffic
- People who cannot or will not use Cloudflare to protect an origin server
- Admins who are willing to write bot policy rules to allowlist good bots they want to keep
Not ideal for
- Sites that depend on search engines or archives being able to crawl them, since the README warns it may block good bots like the Internet Archive
- Anyone who already has Cloudflare or a similar service in front of their origin, which the README says is probably sufficient
- Users who want a plug-and-play setting with no configuration, since the README stresses policy definitions to avoid over-blocking
How to get it
- 1
See the README
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis - 2
Run it
- Read the documentation at anubis.techaro.lol to choose an install method
- Install a release package or build from source following the docs
- Configure a bot policy definition for your site
- Point your reverse proxy or traffic path through Anubis and test with a browser and a known crawler
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Write bot policy definitions to allowlist good bots you want to keep, as the README recommends
- Check the packaging status page for distribution packages if you prefer not to build from source
- Use the Patron Discord channel #anubis for live chat support, per the README
- Open a detailed GitHub issue when you hit problems, including full diagnostic information
Downloads
Strengths
- Described as lightweight, aimed at letting small operators afford protection
- Open source under the MIT license with a large community (about 23.8k stars)
- Configurable through bot policy definitions
Trade-offs
- The README calls it a nuclear response that can block legitimate bots and smaller scrapers
- The README is truncated here, so detailed setup and supported platforms are not confirmed in this analysis
- Requires understanding of challenges and policy rules to tune well
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| anubis (this) | 23.9k | App | intermediate | 4 days ago | Operators of small websites or self-hosted services being overwhelmed by AI crawler traffic |
| web-check | 35.3k | App | intermediate | 4 days ago | Developers checking how a site is configured |
| API-Security-Checklist | 23.3k | Learning resource | beginner | 4 months ago | Developers reviewing an API design before launch |
| systeminformer | 16.4k | App | intermediate | 4 days ago | Windows users who want more detail than Task Manager provides |
| crowdsec | 15.4k | App | intermediate | 6 days ago | System administrators who run Linux servers and want fail2ban-style protection with more flexibility |
| helmet | 10.7k | Library | beginner | 5 days ago | Developers building Express web apps who want sensible security headers by default |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.