---
schema_version: "newruntime-reader-dossiers-v1"
type: "reader_dossier"
slug: "twitterbot"
kind: "link_preview"
operator: "X Corp."
researched_at: "2026-10-23"
confidence: "medium"
json_url: "https://newruntime.com/readers/twitterbot.json"
canonical_url: "https://newruntime.com/readers/twitterbot/"
---

# Twitterbot

> X's fetcher that retrieves card metadata (Twitter Cards / Open Graph) to render link previews when a URL is shared on X.

## Dossier

- Kind: Link previewers
- Operator: X Corp. (https://x.com/)
- Documentation: none found
- robots.txt tokens: Twitterbot
- Feeds: link preview
- Respects robots.txt: Not documented. X developer docs (cards getting-started) were not reachable (402/404); third-party sources conflict on robots.txt.
- Verification: No published method
- Labels matched in our logs: twitterbot

## Why it matters to New Runtime (our interpretation)

Someone shared a New Runtime link on X; a distribution signal in the AI-news crowd.

## Observed behaviour

- Baseline 2026-10-23 (93-day window): 40 requests on 7 days; first seen 2026-07-23, last seen 2026-10-23; Returning.
- Live numbers: https://newruntime.com/bot-traffic-history.json and https://newruntime.com/crawler-journeys.json

## Sources

- https://knownagents.com/agents/twitterbot

Identity: A family name is what a client claims in its user agent. It is verified only when its request came from the operator's published IP ranges or passed forward-confirmed reverse DNS, as reported per family in /crawler-journeys.json. Anyone can claim any name.

All dossiers: https://newruntime.com/readers.md