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IndexNow command line — indexnowkit/cli

Tell Yandex, Bing, Naver and Seznam which URLs changed, from any host that has PHP and from any CI — no framework. One binary, indexnow: check the key file, submit URLs or a whole sitemap (only what is new or changed since the last run), keep the history. Cron on Bitrix, WordPress, MODX, OpenCart or Joomla; a deploy of Hugo, Astro or Jekyll; "just send these ten URLs". Three packagings of the same thing: a Composer package, indexnow.phar, the Docker image ghcr.io/indexnowkit/indexnow — and a GitHub Action on top of the image.

github.com/indexnowkit/php (the php-* repositories are read-only splits)

Who gets notified

Yandex, Bing (and DuckDuckGo via Bing), Naver, Seznam, Yep, Internet Archive, Amazon — every engine in the IndexNow registry. One request to the shared endpoint reaches all of them; name engines explicitly (INDEXNOW_ENGINES=yandex,bing) only to reach a single one.

Google: no. Google does not support IndexNow; this tool will not pretend otherwise. IndexNow is a notification, not indexing: the engine decides whether and when to crawl.

Install

PHP 8.2+ with pdo_sqlite and xmlreader (the PHAR checks that before it runs; shared hosting without pdo_sqlite cannot keep the state file — --state memory runs without one). No ext-intl needed.

Quick start

…then one line in crontab — only what changed since the last run, whatever <lastmod> says:

Or ten URLs by hand: indexnow submit https://www.example.com/a /b /c.

Any CMS: Bitrix, WordPress, MODX, OpenCart, Joomla

The CLI needs two things every site has: the document root (for key:file) and a sitemap. Bitrix generates sitemap.xml and the index per information block with its own "Search engine optimization" module (since version 14); WordPress has one at /wp-sitemap.xml (5.5+) or from an SEO plugin; MODX (pdoTools, SEO Suite), OpenCart (a sitemap feed) and Joomla (an extension) likewise. Point INDEXNOW_SITEMAP_URL at it when it is not <base_url>/sitemap.xml, or give the file: indexnow sitemap /var/www/site/public/sitemap.xml reads it from disk. No PHP of the CMS runs; the CLI is a separate process on the same host.

Bitrix, step by step

On a BitrixVM the site lives in /home/bitrix/www (the other sites of a multi-site setup in /home/bitrix/ext_www/<site>) and the "Search engine optimization" module writes sitemap.xml right into that document root (Marketing → Search engine optimization → sitemap.xml settings; regenerate it there or by its agent). The CLI needs PHP 8.2+ on the command line — the PHP the VM menu selected.

The sitemap is read from disk, so nothing depends on the web server or on caching; only URLs the state file has not seen with this <lastmod> go out. Nothing is installed into Bitrix, no module, no agent: the CLI is a process of the bitrix user next to the site.

Static sites: on deploy

The GitHub Action indexnowkit/indexnow-action runs check and then sitemap --new-only from the image; the state file lives in .indexnow/ and is cached between runs:

Inputs, outputs and the step summary: docs/action.md. Any other CI runs the image the same way: docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" -e INDEXNOW_KEY -e INDEXNOW_BASE_URL ghcr.io/indexnowkit/indexnow sitemap --new-only (docs/docker.md).

The state file

.indexnow/state.sqlite in the working directory (--state, INDEXNOW_STATE), one sqlite file, created on first use in a 0700 directory: the debounce window (debounce.per_url, 10 minutes: a URL announced twice within it is sent once — --force overrides), the 403 counters per host, the submission history (history, status) and the fingerprints of the sitemap URLs announced so far (sitemap --new-only). Everything that makes a scheduled run idempotent, in one file that fits actions/cache; no backup needed (losing it costs one full re-announcement). --state memory keeps nothing between runs — a read-only container, a one-off --dry-run. check prints the state: line; details in docs/state.md.

Configuration

Environment first, file second. Every option of the core and of the three packages is one variable: INDEXNOW_<KEY> for the core (INDEXNOW_KEY, INDEXNOW_BASE_URL, INDEXNOW_ENGINES, INDEXNOW_DEBOUNCE_PER_URL, …), INDEXNOW_<BLOCK>_<KEY> for the blocks (INDEXNOW_SITEMAP_URL, INDEXNOW_SITEMAP_MAX_DEPTH, INDEXNOW_VERIFY_ENABLED, INDEXNOW_HISTORY_PDO_DSN). A .env in the working directory is read when it is there (--env-file, --no-env-file); the process environment wins over it. For the parts that are not one value (a hosts map with per-host key locations) a JSON file in the shape of Config::fromArray(): --config indexnow.json or INDEXNOW_CONFIG; the variables win over the file, INDEXNOW_HOSTS replaces its hosts map whole. Precedence: the command's options, the process environment, .env, --config, the defaults.

Two defaults are the CLI's: debounce.store is state (the state file; memory and none as everywhere) and history.store is pdo over the same file (INDEXNOW_HISTORY_STORE=none switches it off). dispatch is sync or none: a process has no queue. check warns about an INDEXNOW_* variable nothing reads. The tables: docs/configuration.md.

Commands

Global options: --env-file, --no-env-file, --config, --state, -v (the log on stderr). Exit codes: 0, 1 (an engine or the source failed), 2 (bad arguments; --new-only without a state, sitemap.enabled: false). --json keeps stdout machine-readable; the notes go to stderr.

Docker

ghcr.io/indexnowkit/indexnow:<version> (0.1, latest), php:8.3-cli-alpine plus the PHAR, runs as the user indexnow (uid 1000) in /work: mount the directory that holds .indexnow/ and the sitemap files there. The <version>-action tag is the same image without a user for the GitHub Action. docs/docker.md.

Limitations

• No explain, no submit-<subject>: they need the ORM of a framework adapter. check --sample <url> says what an engine would see of a page (indexnowkit/verify is built in; verify.enabled switches the pre-flight on).
• debounce.store and history.pdo.service cannot name a container id: there is no container. state, memory, none; history.pdo.dsn for a database of your own.
• The image has no ext-intl: international host names go through the core's pure PHP Punycode.
• Bulk changes in a CMS fire nothing: run sitemap --new-only on a schedule, that is the point.

Other packages

A framework adapter submits the moment a model is committed; this CLI submits when it is run. On a host with a framework, prefer the adapter and use the CLI for what it adds (key:file on a bare host, a sitemap in cron).

Notes for AI assistants

• Composer package indexnowkit/cli, binary indexnow (also indexnow.phar from the GitHub releases of indexnowkit/php-cli and the image ghcr.io/indexnowkit/indexnow); no framework, no ORM. Configuration: INDEXNOW_* variables (.env in the working directory) or --config FILE (JSON); state in the .indexnow directory (state.sqlite).

• Minimal complete setup (no PHP code: the CLI is the program):

• Commands: check, config, submit, sitemap, key:generate, key:file, history, status — the family's indexnow:check, indexnow:config, indexnow:submit, indexnow:sitemap, indexnow:key:generate, indexnow:history, indexnow:status without the prefix (the binary is the prefix). Verify: indexnow check --live.
• Pitfalls:
  • The key file must be served by the site (key:file <docroot> writes it; check fetches it); a 403 from every engine means the key file is wrong or cached stale.
  • Outside production (INDEXNOW_ENV not in prod, production) a configured key with dry_run unset makes check fail; set INDEXNOW_DRY_RUN=true there or INDEXNOW_ENV=prod.
  • sitemap --new-only needs the state file between runs (actions/cache in CI); --state memory makes every run the first. --changed-since and --new-only add up.
  • debounce.store accepts state, memory, none only; http.client cannot be set (no container). history.store is pdo over the state file by default; INDEXNOW_HISTORY_STORE=none switches the history off.
  • Unknown INDEXNOW_* variables are warned about by check (code config.unknown); the key list is Config::OPTIONS plus sitemap.*, verify.*, history.* as INDEXNOW_<BLOCK>_<KEY>.

Versioning

SemVer; until 1.0 minor versions may contain breaking changes, listed in CHANGELOG.md. What the compatibility promise covers — the commands, their options and the variables, not the classes: docs/bc.md.

MIT. IndexNow is a trademark of its owner; this project is independent and not affiliated with Microsoft, Yandex or indexnow.org.