Bot filtering

Bots and verification systems also follow links. Telegfy marks them when it records the click, but it does not block the redirect: the visitor goes to the same page as a real user. The click is simply marked and not counted as a live visit.

How a click is marked as a bot

The checks run in order. The first match marks the click:

Reason in the log	What is checked
empty_user_agent	The User-Agent is empty
ua_rule:<pattern>	The User-Agent contains a substring from a custom rule
headless_browser	HeadlessChrome, PhantomJS, Puppeteer, Playwright
known_bot_ua	A User-Agent from the list of known bots
datacenter_ip:<cidr>	The IP is in a datacentre CIDR rule (IPv4 only)
suspicious_headers	No Accept-Language, and the User-Agent has no Mozilla

What changes in statistics

A bot click is recorded in the click log with a “bot” flag and device type bot. It:

• does not increase the link’s click counter;
• appears in reports when you choose the “Bot” filter.

The “Bot” filter in reports offers “All”, “Bots only” or “Exclude bots”.

Bots in routing rules

The “Is a bot” condition in routing rules checks only the built-in User-Agent list. Custom bot rules and datacentre IPs are not included. To cut off your own unwanted traffic at routing level, use the “IP address” or “Browser” condition with the “Action” → “404 Not Found” action.

Bot rules

The “Bot rules” section (/dashboard/settings/bot-rules) lets you add your own rules: by User-Agent, by IP range (CIDR) or by ASN.

• Rules are global: they apply across the whole platform.
• Only a platform administrator can change them. A regular user sees a loading error.
• ASN rules are saved but not evaluated. Use CIDR.
• Changes do not apply at once: the cache refreshes every 5 minutes.

Click uniqueness

Uniqueness is not about bots, but it affects the “Unique clicks” metric. The settings are in “Click intake” (/dashboard/settings/click-settings).

1. Uniqueness scope, uniqueness key and cost model: dropdowns. The dedup window is a field next to them.

Setting	Options	What it means
Uniqueness scope	Per link, Per campaign, Global	“Per link” counts repeats inside one link. “Per campaign” covers the whole workspace, since there is no separate campaign entity. “Global” covers the whole platform.
Dedup window	Seconds, from 0 to 31,536,000	A repeat with the same key inside this window is not unique. Default 86,400 (one day).
Uniqueness key	IP; IP and User-Agent; IP, User-Agent and cookie	What counts as one visitor.

You can set these for the workspace and override them for a single link. Only the link’s creator can change the override.

Caution

The “Global” scope merges visitors by IP across all workspaces on the platform. For paid traffic that is usually not what you want. Use “Per link” or “Per campaign”.

Common questions

• Why are bot clicks in the click log but not in the link’s counter? That is intended: the counter does not increase, and the log shows the click with a flag.
• Why are there few clicks in a report? Check the “Bot” filter and the uniqueness settings. Repeats inside the dedup window are not unique.
• Can I stop a bot before it gets the redirect? No. Telegfy marks bots, but the redirect always runs. Blocking by IP or User-Agent is done with a routing rule, see Routing rules and flows.

Read next

• Routing rules and flows: IP and User-Agent conditions in rules.
• Currency rates: how click costs are converted.