https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=42170 Bug ID: 42170 Summary: Librarian-Controlled AI Crawler and Search Traffic Management for OPAC Search Page Initiative type: --- Sponsorship --- status: Product: Koha Version: unspecified Hardware: All OS: All Status: NEW Severity: new feature Priority: P5 - low Component: OPAC Assignee: oleonard@myacpl.org Reporter: vimalibre@gmail.com QA Contact: testopia@bugs.koha-community.org I would like to propose a feature for Koha to help libraries manage excessive automated traffic, especially on the OPAC search endpoint such as: opac.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl In some cases, this page is being heavily accessed by AI crawlers and other automated agents, which can consume significant server resources and affect normal library service performance. At present, libraries may control this only through external tools such as Cloudflare, Fail2ban, firewall rules, or reverse proxy configurations. However, these approaches often require dedicated IT support, which many libraries may not have. It would be very helpful if Koha could provide built-in tools, configurable from the librarian/staff interface, to allow libraries to manage this traffic based on their own capacity and policy. Requested Functional Requirements: Enable/Disable AI crawler access to OPAC search page Provide an option in the staff interface to allow or disallow AI crawlers from accessing the OPAC search page. This should be manageable by authorized library administrators without requiring server-level intervention. Allow selected crawlers only Provide a configurable allowlist option so that the library may permit only selected crawlers or bots while blocking others. This would help libraries that want discovery/indexing benefits from specific services without opening access to all automated agents. Rate limiting for OPAC search endpoint Provide an option to enable configurable rate limiting specifically for high-hit pages such as opac-search.pl. This may help reduce server load caused by repeated automated queries. Challenge or verification for suspicious/concurrent hits Provide an option to trigger a challenge or verification step when unusually high concurrent requests are detected from the same IP or user agent. This may help distinguish genuine users from abusive automated access. Traffic monitoring and analytics Provide a simple monitoring dashboard or reporting tool within Koha to show: hit counts to the OPAC search page, top requesting IPs, top user agents, frequency trends, possible abusive patterns. This would help librarians or library administrators understand how the page is being used and identify resource-heavy access. View hit count by IP Provide an interface to view the number of requests coming from a specific IP address over a defined period. This would support easier investigation of suspicious traffic. Optional blocklist integration Provide an option for authorized administrators to add suspicious IPs to a Koha-managed deny list. Where feasible, Koha could also support optional mapping/export of such IPs for OS firewall or reverse proxy blocking. Optional Cloudflare/API-based rule integration For libraries already using Cloudflare or similar services, an optional integration could be provided where administrators enter API credentials and enable predefined protection rules from within Koha. This could simplify deployment of recommended protections without requiring advanced IT intervention. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are watching all bug changes.