EdgeShaping Lite – AI Bot Visibility vs Human Traffic
See which pages AI bots like GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot are reading, and compare them with your human traffic. Nothing is blocked.
Solid choice
EdgeShaping Lite is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 40+ sites and was last updated 2 weeks ago, and scores 67/100 on our health check.
- Actively developed — last update 2 weeks ago
- Tested with the latest WordPress (7.1)
- Momentum — downloads up 151.1% vs the previous 30 days
- Small user base (40+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where EdgeShaping Lite stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| ai bot | >100 |
| ai-crawler | >100 |
| analytics | >100 |
| bot log | >100 |
| LLM | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About EdgeShaping Lite
From the official readme · v2026.9.1Description
EdgeShaping Lite is a WordPress implementation of the EdgeShaping AI bot observation framework developed by mare interno. Product details: edgeshap.ing
This plugin answers one question:
Which AI bots are reading which pages of your site, and when?
What it does
- Detects AI bot visits using a dictionary of known AI crawlers
- Records bot name, visited URL, and timestamp
- Dashboard with bot visit frequency ranking and most AI-visited pages
- Full access log with date filter and CSV export
- AHQG Matrix — visualizes AI bot visits vs. human search clicks (requires Google Search Console integration)
- AHTG Matrix — visualizes AI bot visits vs. human page views (WordPress’s own pageview tracking). Unlike AHQG, no Google Search Console connection required.
What it does NOT do
- It does not block AI bots
- It does not modify your content
- It does not send data externally — all data stays in your WordPress database
Note on CDN environments
This plugin observes AI bot traffic at the PHP layer. In environments with a CDN (e.g. Cloudflare, CloudFront), cached requests may not reach PHP and will not be recorded. For full CDN-layer observation, see EdgeShaping.
EdgeShaping Framework
EdgeShaping is a framework for observing AI bot behavior to understand how AI systems read and interpret your content. For more information, visit edgeshap.ing.
External Services
This plugin connects to the following external services:
Google Search Console API
This plugin optionally connects to the Google Search Console API to retrieve human search click data for use in the AHQG Matrix feature.
- What it is used for: Retrieving search analytics data (clicks per page) to compare with AI bot traffic.
- What data is sent: The plugin sends OAuth 2.0 authentication requests and search analytics queries to Google’s API. No personal user data from your site visitors is transmitted.
- When it is used: Once the administrator connects their Google Search Console account, the plugin fetches click data from the API once per day in the background (via WordPress cron, or on an admin page load if cron is unavailable) and stores it in your WordPress database, so that historical data remains available after Search Console’s own 16-month retention window. No requests are sent before the account is connected, and disconnecting stops them.
- Service provider: Google LLC
- Terms of Service: https://developers.google.com/terms
- Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Installation
- Upload the plugin files to
/wp-content/plugins/edgeshaping-lite/or install via the WordPress plugin screen - Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress
- Navigate to EdgeShaping Lite in the admin menu to view your dashboard
Data collection begins immediately after activation.
Frequently asked questions
Does this plugin slow down my site?
The plugin adds a lightweight database write on each request matched to an AI bot. Non-bot traffic is not logged and has zero performance impact.
How often is the bot dictionary updated?
The dictionary is updated via plugin updates.
Can I export the data?
Yes. CSV export is available from the access log screen with date filter applied.
What about GDPR?
The plugin records only bot traffic (non-human). No personal data is collected.
What is the AHQG Matrix?
AHQG Matrix is a framework that classifies pages into four quadrants based on AI bot visits and human search clicks. Requires Google Search Console integration.
What is the AHTG Matrix?
AHTG Matrix uses the same four-quadrant model as AHQG, but the human axis is WordPress’s own page views instead of Google Search Console clicks — no external connection required, and it reflects all traffic sources, not just search.
Changelog
Adds CDN IP verification. Fixes dashboard summaries to use verified data only. Access Log and CSV export now output all rows unfiltered. Existing data carries over automatically. Display name is now "EdgeShaping Lite – AI Bot Visibility vs Human Traffic" (slug unchanged).
2026.9.1
- Added: IP verification support for CDN environments.
- Fixed: the dashboard summary tables now read from verified data.
- Fixed: Access Log and CSV export now output all rows, unfiltered.
- Changed: log cleanup is now unified with the daily aggregation batch.
2026.9.0
- Changed: version numbering moved to CalVer (
YYYY.M.PATCH), since releases are driven by the monthly bot dictionary update. - Added: IP verification. Bot IP ranges published by each vendor are bundled with the plugin and matched against the recorded IP in the nightly batch. The dashboard and matrices now count only verified visits, so a request merely claiming to be a known crawler no longer inflates your numbers. The access log is unfiltered as before.
- Added: the client IP is now recorded for bot requests and shown in the access log and CSV export. Only bots matched by the dictionary are logged, so no visitor data is stored.
- Changed: the dashboard and matrices now end at yesterday, matching the nightly batch. The access log still shows today.
- Fixed: the dashboard scorecards included noise paths (robots.txt, sitemaps, archives) and did not match the tables below them.
- Changed: bot dictionary updated.
1.6.2
- Fixed: in the AHQG and AHTG matrices, the same page could appear as two separate rows (with and without a trailing slash), splitting its counts. Both axes are now normalized consistently.
- Fixed: category, author, and pagination archive URLs (e.g. /category/, /author/, /page/2/) are no longer mixed into the matrices.
- Changed: the top page is now excluded from both the AHQG and AHTG matrices (it always lands in the same quadrant and only skews the thresholds).
- Changed: the AHQG date range now ends a few days before today, because Search Console data for the most recent days is not yet final. This keeps the human axis from being understated.
- Added: Search Console click data is now imported once per day and stored in your WordPress database, so the human axis remains available even beyond Search Console’s own retention window.
- Changed: expanded the spam/scan path filtering used by Inferred Path (dot-files, config files, API and GraphQL probes, etc.).
1.6.1
- Changed: bot dictionary reviewed and corrected; a few entries added and a few unverifiable ones removed.
- Fixed: the upsell notices shown for paid-edition-only screens (REST API, Category Analysis, Access Log detail) referenced an outdated API structure and pricing. Simplified to a generic notice pointing to the purchase page.
- Changed: internal bot-signature data file renamed (no functional change).
1.6.0
- Changed: increased the rolling row limit from 20,000 to 100,000.
- Changed: statistics are now pre-aggregated in a daily batch instead of being computed on every page view, improving admin screen performance.
1.5.0
- Added AHTG Matrix — visualizes AI bot visits vs. human page views. Unlike AHQG, no Google Search Console connection required.
- Added general-purpose bot exclusion list (SEO tools, uptime monitors, scrapers) to keep human traffic counts clean.
- Changed: increased the rolling row limit from 10,000 to 20,000.
Screenshots
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FAQ
EdgeShaping Lite: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 3, 2026
Is EdgeShaping Lite free?
Yes. EdgeShaping Lite is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is EdgeShaping Lite safe to use in 2026?
EdgeShaping Lite is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 40+ sites and was last updated 2 weeks ago, and scores 67/100 on our health check.
How many websites use EdgeShaping Lite?
EdgeShaping Lite is active on 40+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 1,689 times since it launched in June 2026. It was downloaded 668 times in the last 30 days.
Does EdgeShaping Lite work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes. The developer has tested EdgeShaping Lite up to WordPress 7.1.2, the latest release. It requires WordPress 6.0 or newer.
What PHP version does EdgeShaping Lite need?
EdgeShaping Lite requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was EdgeShaping Lite last updated?
The latest version, 2026.9.1, was released on September 16, 2026 (2 weeks ago).
Who makes EdgeShaping Lite?
EdgeShaping Lite is developed and maintained by mareinterno.
What are the best alternatives to EdgeShaping Lite?
The most popular alternatives to EdgeShaping Lite are Syrow Care (10+ installs), JTZL's Bot Maze (10+ installs) and enrol.chat (<10 installs).
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