Publisher explains IndexNow key security after own middleware blocked search engine updates

A website publisher intentionally stores its IndexNow key publicly in its code repository as part of the verification protocol. IndexNow is a real-time notification system used by Bing, Yandex, Seznam, and Naver to quickly index updated URLs. The publisher encountered a technical issue when its own authentication middleware incorrectly blocked access to the key file by redirecting requests to a login page. This same problem had previously affected access to the site's robots.txt and sitemap.xml files. The issue was resolved by adding the key file path to a list of publicly accessible routes exempt from authentication checks.