diff --git a/src/index.rs b/src/index.rs
index a34f335..2e2d34c 100644
--- a/src/index.rs
+++ b/src/index.rs
@@ -8,3 +8,14 @@ pub async fn index(State(engine): State<Arc<crate::engine::Engine>>) -> String {
 
     format!("minish's image host, currently hosting {} files", count)
 }
+
+// robots.txt that tells web crawlers not to list uploads
+const ROBOTS_TXT: &'static str = concat!(
+    "User-Agent: *\n",
+    "Disallow: /p/*\n",
+    "Allow: /\n"
+);
+
+pub async fn robots_txt() -> &'static str {
+    ROBOTS_TXT
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 3783fa6..2462df6 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ async fn main() {
 
     if upload_key.is_empty() {
         // i would prefer this to be a warning but the default log level hides those
-        error!("upload key is empty! no key will be required for uploading new files");
+        error!("upload key (BRZ_UPLOAD_KEY) is empty! no key will be required for uploading new files");
     }
 
     // create engine
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ async fn main() {
         .route("/new", post(new::new))
         .route("/p/:name", get(view::view))
         .route("/", get(index::index))
+        .route("/robots.txt", get(index::robots_txt))
         .with_state(Arc::new(engine));
 
     // start web server