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Make a demo readable by AI assistants and search engines

Updated Oct 13, 2026

Make a demo readable by AI assistants and search engines

Overview​

Walnut can present a lightweight, text-only summary of a public demo to AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI, Apple Intelligence, and similar) and to search-engine crawlers — so when someone asks an assistant about your product or searches for it on the web, the demo's name, description, and AI-generated summary can turn up alongside its canonical player URL.

The visitor still sees the regular interactive demo. Only recognised bots receive the text summary; everyone else is served the full player as before.

Why this matters: Walnut demos are JavaScript apps, which crawlers normally cannot read. Turning this on gives search engines and LLM assistants something indexable to point at — so a public demo page can be discovered the same way a marketing page or help article would be.

Turn it on for a demo​

  1. Open the demo and click Create & Share (or Set Demo Preferences).
  2. Open the Link Settings tab.
  3. Toggle Make readable by AI and search engines on.
  4. Save.

The setting lives on each demo, so you decide per demo whether crawlers get the summary.

If the demo is embedded on your website, re-copy the embed code after you change the setting — the embed carries the current indexability so your page's own search presence stays consistent.

Which demos are eligible​

The toggle is live, but Walnut will only serve the summary when all of the following are true:

  • Who can access the demo? is set to Anyone with the link.
  • Email gate is off (no email required to view).
  • Access code is off.
  • The demo is not expired and not archived.
  • Your workspace has an active Walnut contract.

If any of these change — for example, you add an email gate — Walnut immediately stops serving the summary to crawlers, even if the toggle is still on. The toggle is a prerequisite, not an override of your access settings.

What AI assistants and crawlers see​

When a recognised bot requests the demo's player URL, Walnut returns a short HTML page containing:

  • The demo name.
  • The demo description, if you've written one.
  • The first paragraph of the demo's AI-generated summary (the same summary Walnut builds for Buyer Xpert). Demos that have not been summarised yet show the name and description only.
  • The canonical player URL, so the assistant can link visitors back to the interactive demo.

A machine-readable Markdown version of the same content is available at https://api.teamwalnut.com/public/demos/<demo-id>.md for assistants that prefer to fetch Markdown directly.

Walnut recognises the major AI and search user agents, including GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, Claude-User, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, Googlebot, Bingbot, and Applebot. Other visitors — including a human who pastes the URL into a browser — always get the regular interactive player.

Demos with the toggle off are served a noindex stub to the same bots, so turning the toggle off removes the demo from fresh crawls.

What crawlers do not see​

The readable response is deliberately small. It does not include:

  • Screen content, screenshots, or captured HTML.
  • Guide step text or narration.
  • Any viewer data, CRM attribution, or analytics parameters.
  • Variables, personalisation, or anything from a specific recipient's link.

Assistants and search engines index the summary of the demo, not the demo itself. A viewer who clicks through from a search result still sees your interactive demo exactly as any other visitor would.

Turning it off​

Flip the toggle off and save, or change the demo's access settings so it no longer qualifies (for example, add an email gate). Walnut will stop serving the summary to crawlers immediately.

Note that AI assistants and search engines cache content they have already read — a result that was indexed while the toggle was on may continue to surface in assistant answers or search results for a while after you turn it off. Walnut cannot evict their caches; this clears on their own refresh schedule.

FAQs​

Does this affect SEO for my marketing site?​

Only for the Walnut player URL itself. If you embed the demo on a page you control, your page's own <meta> tags still rule its indexability — but the embed will serve the readable summary to bots that reach the Walnut iframe directly.

What if my demo has an email gate?​

Walnut will not serve the summary. Gated demos stay invisible to crawlers regardless of this toggle, so a demo that captures leads is never exposed to indexing.

Does the summary update when I edit the demo?​

Yes — the summary is rebuilt whenever Walnut re-summarises the demo. Changes to the demo's name or description are picked up on the next crawl. If you're embedding the demo, re-copy the embed code after changing it.

Can I preview what a crawler sees?​

Fetch https://api.teamwalnut.com/public/demos/<demo-id>.md in your browser or terminal. If the demo is eligible, you'll see the Markdown Walnut returns to assistants.

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