Operations¶

Log lines¶

Every line of the pre-flight starts with indexnow verify:; the prefixes below are fixed (operators grep them, and docs/bc.md lists them as a contract), the values in {} are PSR-3 context.

Level	Line	When
info	`indexnow verify: skipped {url}: noindex ({source})`	`X-Robots-Tag` or `meta robots` says `noindex` / `none`
info	`indexnow verify: skipped {url}: robots.txt disallows ({rule})`	the host's `robots.txt` disallows the path (`{rule}` = `Disallow: /path`)
info	`indexnow verify: skipped {url}: canonical is {canonical}`	the page names another canonical, `non_canonical: skip`
info	`indexnow verify: skipped {url}: canonical is {canonical}: canonical points to a foreign host`	`non_canonical: replace`, but the canonical's host has no key
info	`indexnow verify: replaced {url} with canonical {canonical}`	`non_canonical: replace`: the canonical is submitted instead
info	`indexnow verify: skipped {url}: redirected to {location} ({status})`	a 3xx under `redirect: skip`, or without `Location`; with `: redirect leaves the configured hosts`, `: redirect loop`, `: more than {max} redirects` under `follow`
info	`indexnow verify: {url} gone (HTTP {status}), submitted as a deletion`	404 / 410
warning	`indexnow verify: skipped {url}: origin error ({error})`	401, 403, 5xx, any other 4xx or a transport failure, `origin_error: skip`; `{error}` is `HTTP 503` or the transport message; 401/403 add `the origin refuses the pre-flight GET; on a protected environment set verify.enabled: false`
warning	`indexnow verify: {url} origin error ({error}), sent anyway (verify.origin_error: send)`	the same under `origin_error: send`
warning	`indexnow verify: batch of {count} URLs exceeds verify.max_batch ({max}), sent unverified; use sitemap --no-verify or raise the limit`	a batch above `verify.max_batch`
warning	`indexnow verify: robots.txt of {host} unavailable ({error})`, `… unavailable (HTTP {status}), URLs are treated as allowed`	`robots.txt` not 200 / 404 or a transport failure — once per host and process
warning	`indexnow verify: robots cache unavailable, fetching robots.txt per process: {error}`	the PSR-16 cache threw — once per process
critical	`indexnow verify: invalid verify configuration, pre-flight checks are off until it is fixed: {error} (run "{check}")`	the `verify` block does not validate

The skipped results carry the same facts for code: Result::$reason (noindex, robots_disallowed, non_canonical, redirected, origin_error), Result::$error (the sentence after skipped {url}:), engine none, retryable true for origin_error only. Metrics by Result::metricLabels() count them under status: skipped, reason: ….

What to alert on¶

origin error lines in a row for one host: the origin refuses the pre-flight (WAF, auth, maintenance) and nothing reaches the engines until it is fixed or verify.origin_error: send / verify.enabled: false is set.
exceeds verify.max_batch outside a scheduled sitemap run: something submits thousands of URLs at once.
robots.txt of {host} unavailable: the pre-flight allows everything; the robots.txt itself is the problem.

Checks¶

indexnow:check prints, with the package: verify: installed, disabled (verify.enabled: false) (ok, verify.installed) or verify: enabled (redirect: skip, non_canonical: skip, origin_error: skip) (an invalid block is not a check line: VerifyConfig::loadOrDisabled() logs it at critical and the pre-flight is off, the bundle rejects it at compile time); verify.dispatch (warning) for verify.enabled with dispatch: sync; one verify.sample line per --sample / --sample-class (ok or warning, never error), or verify sample: no sample given (check --sample=<url>) (ok). Without the package: verify: not installed (composer require indexnowkit/verify) — pre-flight checks off (ok), and --sample is an error with the install line.

Staging and CI¶

Outside production the core already refuses to submit without an explicit dry_run: false; the pre-flight runs under dry_run too (a GET is harmless) so submit --dry-run and check --sample show what would be skipped. A staging behind basic auth answers 401 to the pre-flight: verify.enabled: false there, or verify.origin_error: send.