Customize request detection

The built-in detector handles most cases, but you can fine-tune which detection methods are active or replace the detector entirely.

##Toggle detection methods

You can enable or disable individual detection methods in the config:

// config/markdown-response.php

'detection' => [
    'detect_via_accept_header' => true,
    'detect_via_md_suffix' => true,
    'detect_via_user_agents' => [
        'GPTBot',
        'ClaudeBot',
        // ...
    ],
],

Set detect_via_user_agents to an empty array to disable user agent detection.

##Extend the detector

If you need more control, you can extend the DetectsMarkdownRequest class and point to it in the config:

// config/markdown-response.php

'detection' => [
    'detector' => App\Actions\CustomDetectsMarkdownRequest::class,
],

namespace App\Actions;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Spatie\MarkdownResponse\Actions\DetectsMarkdownRequest;

class CustomDetectsMarkdownRequest extends DetectsMarkdownRequest
{
    public function __invoke(Request $request): false|string
    {
        // Only respond with markdown for specific paths
        if (! str_starts_with($request->getPathInfo(), '/docs')) {
            return false;
        }

        return parent::__invoke($request);
    }
}

The returned string tells the middleware how to handle the request:

• 'suffix': the middleware strips .md from the URL before routing
• 'accept': the middleware temporarily swaps the Accept header to text/html
• 'user-agent': the middleware lets the request pass through normally