What is Buffer Link Preview Bot?
A Buffer preview request begins when a Buffer user adds a link to a social post. Buffer fetches the shared URL so its composer can show a card before the post is published. The request is tied to that action and is not evidence of a scheduled site crawl.
The fetcher reads public information used in the card, including the title, description, images, and any Open Graph or Twitter Card fields that are present. Buffer says it does not retrieve private content or material behind authentication. It also rate-limits the bot's requests.
The documented user agent is BufferLinkPreviewBot/1.0 with a link to Buffer's bot page. Its robots.txt token is BufferLinkPreviewBot, and Buffer explicitly says it honors directives for that token. This gives site owners a documented way to exclude all or part of a site from preview fetching.
Buffer uses the response to build a social link preview. The operator does not claim an AI search, retrieval, or model-training purpose for this bot. Allowing it can improve the card shown in Buffer, but it has no documented effect on whether an AI system cites or learns from the page.
