# Finding 020: Perplexity directed poem prompt produced no page hit but triggered discovery crawl ## Date 2026-06-29 ## Status Published ## Summary Perplexity was given a fresh incognito web prompt with a never-before-published, high-entropy poem URL: `/lab/perplexity-poem/harbor-ledger-9f3c2a17`. The page was enabled only for the test window and then disabled. Perplexity answered that it could not reliably open the page and did not report the poem marker, 9 visible rows, 71 visible words, `DIRECTLOG` acrostic, or afterword marker. No direct-origin event reached the unique poem URL, afterword URL, resource URLs, or JavaScript beacon for the exact test id. However, official `PerplexityBot` fetched `/` and `/robots.txt` during the same prompt window. This is evidence of related discovery behavior, not evidence that Perplexity retrieved the directed poem page. ## Hypothesis A direct Perplexity prompt containing a unique, non-discoverable URL might produce a fetch to that exact page, enabling clean attribution because no other system had prior knowledge of the slug. ## Test Setup - Run id: `perplexity-poem-20260629-001` - Attempt id: `perplexity-poem-20260629-001-p01` - Prompt id: `harbor-ledger-poem` - Target path: `/lab/perplexity-poem/harbor-ledger-9f3c2a17` - Test state enabled: `2026-06-29T02:53:18.833Z` - Prompt submitted: approximately `2026-06-29T02:54:00.000Z` - Test state disabled: `2026-06-29T02:55:50.297Z` - Surface: Perplexity web, free plan, native incognito thread - Fixture marker: `POEM-LIVE-HARBOR-71` - Visible poem rows: 9 - Visible poem words: 71 - Acrostic: `DIRECTLOG` The fixture route is intentionally absent from public navigation, `robots.txt`, and `sitemap.xml`. It is gated by `data/perplexity-poem-active.json` and returns HTTP 410 after disablement. ## Raw Evidence Prompt and answer artifacts: - Prompt packet: `research/manual-client-runs/perplexity-poem-20260629-001.prompts.json` - Answer packet: `research/manual-client-runs/perplexity-poem-20260629-001.answers.json` Perplexity response excerpt: > I couldn’t reliably open that specific page, so I can’t truthfully describe > its exact poem, line count, acrostic, or afterword from the page itself. No events matched: - `test_id = perplexity-poem-20260629-001-p01` - path containing `/lab/perplexity-poem/harbor-ledger-9f3c2a17` Related events observed during the active prompt window: | Event ID | Timestamp | Path | IP | User-Agent | |---|---:|---|---|---| | `mqyml1zs-g3bkrjta` | `2026-06-29T02:55:34.815Z` | `/` | `::ffff:18.97.9.102` | `Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot)` | | `mqyml1zs-mypp3hxl` | `2026-06-29T02:55:34.820Z` | `/robots.txt` | `::ffff:18.97.9.99` | `Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; PerplexityBot/1.0; +https://perplexity.ai/perplexitybot)` | ClickHouse query for the active window returned only those two Perplexity events: ```text 2026-06-29 02:55:34.815 static_page / Perplexity search_index_crawler 2026-06-29 02:55:34.820 discovery_file /robots.txt Perplexity search_index_crawler ``` ## Expected Result If Perplexity could live-fetch the supplied URL, the lab should have recorded at least one `server_page` event for the exact poem path and test id. A browser-like fetch could also have produced stylesheet, image, script, JSON, tracking-pixel, afterword, hidden-link, or JavaScript beacon events. ## Observed Result - Perplexity did not answer from the poem page. - No event reached the unique poem path. - No event carried the exact poem `test_id`. - No afterword, resource, tracking-pixel, or JavaScript beacon event appeared. - Official `PerplexityBot` did fetch `/` and `/robots.txt` within the prompt window. ## Interpretation The direct prompt did not cause Perplexity to retrieve the unique page content. The official PerplexityBot activity suggests the prompt or Perplexity search flow triggered some discovery/indexing behavior against the domain, but that behavior stopped at the homepage and robots file during the active window. This result narrows the earlier Perplexity blind-spot thesis: Perplexity may react to a direct URL prompt with discovery crawling, yet still fail to fetch or surface a non-discoverable high-entropy page in the answer. ## Limitations - Single run on the free Perplexity web surface. - The prompt used a native Perplexity incognito thread, but the account and browser profile were still the lab's normal controlled-browser environment. - Delayed crawler visits after disablement would be separate post-window observations. - The official IP range cache was refreshed after this run, so the stored raw events preserve UA/IP/DNS evidence but not a precomputed official-range match. ## Publication Thesis Verification - Thesis: Perplexity did not fetch the unique short-lived poem page during the active prompt window, but official PerplexityBot fetched the homepage and robots.txt during that same window. - Reviewer: pending separate-agent verification. - Source evaluation: Primary source artifacts are local direct-origin append-only NDJSON, ClickHouse rows, prompt packet, answer packet, and the controlled-browser Perplexity response. - Method check: Strong for no direct poem-page hit in the bounded window; limited by single-run sample size and approximate prompt submission time. - Bias or funding check: Lab-owned infrastructure and operator-authored prompt; model response is treated as a claim, not evidence of retrieval. - Consensus or triangulation: Triangulated across answer artifact, NDJSON, and ClickHouse. Needs repetition and paid-tier comparison. - Retraction or invalidation check: Later delayed crawler events for the same path could change the post-window interpretation but would not prove active content-window retrieval unless timestamps and state agree. - Verdict: `supported` - Confidence: medium-high for bounded no-hit; medium for prompt-triggered discovery interpretation. - Additional tests suggested: repeat with paid Perplexity, shorter URL, URL without query parameters, and a URL added to robots/sitemap only after prompt submission.