What Google Stackdriver does
Google Stackdriver Monitoring uptime checks are part of Google Cloud Monitoring and make requests to endpoints that a Google Cloud customer configures, tracking the responses to monitor service availability, including for services behind firewalls. Requests from the uptime-check servers carry the user agent "GoogleStackdriverMonitoring-UptimeChecks(https://cloud.google.com/monitoring)", and customers cannot override it: specifying a custom User-Agent header causes a validation error. Checks run from four geographic regions (USA, EUROPE, SOUTH_AMERICA, and ASIA_PACIFIC), each with multiple locations, and only one address from each location is used per time interval. Current source IP addresses can be retrieved from the Google Cloud console, the gcloud CLI, or the Monitoring API.
How to control Google Stackdriver
Target Google Stackdriver in your robots.txt with the GoogleStackdriverMonitoring-UptimeChecks token. Rules apply per bot, so you can allow this one while blocking others, or the reverse.
Allow Google Stackdriver
User-agent: GoogleStackdriverMonitoring-UptimeChecks
Allow: /Block Google Stackdriver
User-agent: GoogleStackdriverMonitoring-UptimeChecks
Disallow: /Google publishes the source IP addresses of its uptime-check servers, retrievable via the Cloud console (uptime-source-ips.txt), the gcloud CLI, or the Monitoring API's uptimeCheckIps.list method, but the documentation does not describe robots.txt behavior.
How to identify Google Stackdriver
Temso identifies Google Stackdrivertraffic by matching the request's User-Agent header against this pattern. User-agent strings can be spoofed, so treat a match as an indication, not proof.
GoogleStackdriverMonitoring-UptimeChecksGoogle Stackdriver FAQ
What is Google Stackdriver?
GoogleStackdriverMonitoring-UptimeChecks is the user agent of Google Cloud Monitoring uptime checks, which request an endpoint that a Google Cloud customer has configured and track the responses to monitor availability. Checks originate from locations in four regions: USA, EUROPE, SOUTH_AMERICA, and ASIA_PACIFIC.
How do I block Google Stackdriver?
Google's documentation does not state that uptime checks read robots.txt; the checks are configured by a Google Cloud customer against specific endpoints. The documented way to control this traffic is by IP: Google publishes the uptime-check source addresses via the Cloud console, the gcloud CLI, or the Monitoring API, so you can block or allow them in your firewall.
About Operational Bots
Monitoring, security scanning, link previews, webhooks, and feed fetchers: the utility traffic that keeps integrations and shared links working.
Most of this traffic is service-critical or user-triggered. Webhooks and previews don't follow robots.txt, and blocking them tends to break things you rely on.
