{"id":7022,"date":"2026-07-23T17:42:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/docs\/the-chatbot-displays-forbidden-or-an-error-page-what-should-i-do\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T17:46:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:46:05","password":"","slug":"the-chatbot-displays-forbidden-or-an-error-page-what-should-i-do","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs\/the-chatbot-displays-forbidden-or-an-error-page-what-should-i-do\/","title":{"rendered":"The chatbot displays &#8220;Forbidden&#8221; or an error page\u2014what should I do?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is an FAQ entry for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/\">WordPress chatGPT SmartSearchWP plugin<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Symptoms<\/h2>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The chatbot appears, but <strong>no response<\/strong> is displayed after sending a message.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the browser&#8217;s developer tools ( <em>Network<\/em> tab), the following request fails with a <strong>403 Forbidden<\/strong> error code:  <code>POST \/wp-json\/wdgpt\/v1\/retrieve-prompt<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sometimes, visitors would previously see the raw text of an error page in the chatbot&#8217;s message bubble (&#8220;Forbidden \u2014 You don&#8217;t have permission to access this resource&#8221;).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cause<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This <strong>isn&#8217;t<\/strong> a problem with the OpenAI key or with the context settings in SmartSearchWP.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On some hosting plans, a <strong>security filter<\/strong> (WAF, ModSecurity, Wordfence, OVH Basic CDN, etc.) blocks <strong>POST<\/strong> requests to the chatbot&#8217;s REST API <strong>before<\/strong> they reach WordPress.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Context or embedding generation can continue to function, as it uses different routes. Only the <strong>visitor \u2192 chatbot<\/strong> interaction is affected. <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Solution \u2014 Update SmartSearchWP<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Starting with version <strong>2.7.4<\/strong>, the plugin:<\/p>\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>automatically <strong>retries<\/strong> the REST call;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Switch<\/strong> to <code>admin-ajax.php<\/code> if <code>\/wp-json\/<\/code> remains blocked;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>displays a <strong>clear message<\/strong> to the visitor instead of the raw HTML code of the error.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Steps:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Go to <em>Dashboard \u2192 Updates<\/em> (or <em>Plugins \u2192 SmartSearchWP<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Install version <strong>2.7.4<\/strong> or later.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clear the cache (cache plugin, CDN, browser) and test a question in the chatbot.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the update doesn&#8217;t appear right away, try again in a few hours: WordPress.org may take some time to make the new version available.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">If the problem persists after 2.7.4<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ask your hosting provider (or configure your WAF\/CDN) to <strong>allow or block<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Petition<\/th><th>Details<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><code>POST \/wp-json\/wdgpt\/v1\/retrieve-prompt<\/code><\/td><td>Main REST Route for the Chatbot<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><code>POST \/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php<\/code><\/td><td>Fallback \u2014 action  <code>wdgpt_retrieve_prompt<\/code><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Troubleshooting:<\/strong> Temporarily disable the CDN or WAF. If the chatbot works without them, the cause is confirmed. <\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Web Hosting Providers Most Often Affected<\/h2>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>OVH<\/strong> (including CDN Basic)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Wordfence<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>ModSecurity<\/strong> (shared server rules)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Other WAFs \/ Application Firewalls<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Need help?<\/h2>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Plugin support: <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/plugin\/smartsearchwp\/\">WordPress.org forum<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Discussion thread: <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/topic\/forbidden-access-7\/\">Forbidden access<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Contact: <a href=\"mailto:hello@smartsearchwp.com\">hello@smartsearchwp.com<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The chatbot may display &#8220;Forbidden&#8221; when the web host or a CDN blocks the REST call. Starting with version 2.7.4, SmartSearchWP automatically handles this situation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[86],"doc_tag":[129,127,130,131,132,128],"class_list":["post-7022","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-technical","doc_tag-129","doc_tag-chatbot","doc_tag-error","doc_tag-forbidden","doc_tag-rest","doc_tag-waf"],"acf":[],"year_month":"2026-07","word_count":307,"total_views":"1","reactions":{"happy":"0","normal":"0","sad":"0"},"author_info":{"name":"Webdigit","author_nicename":"webdigit","author_url":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/author\/webdigit\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"Technical","term_url":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs-category\/technical\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[{"term_name":"403","term_url":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs-tag\/403\/"},{"term_name":"chatbot","term_url":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs-tag\/chatbot\/"},{"term_name":"error","term_url":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs-tag\/error\/"},{"term_name":"forbidden","term_url":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs-tag\/forbidden\/"},{"term_name":"REST","term_url":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs-tag\/rest\/"},{"term_name":"WAF","term_url":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs-tag\/waf\/"}],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The chatbot displays &quot;Forbidden&quot; or an error page\u2014what should I do? - SmartsearchWP<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs\/the-chatbot-displays-forbidden-or-an-error-page-what-should-i-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The chatbot displays &quot;Forbidden&quot; or an error page\u2014what should I do? - SmartsearchWP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The chatbot may display &quot;Forbidden&quot; when the web host or a CDN blocks the REST call. Starting with version 2.7.4, SmartSearchWP automatically handles this situation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs\/the-chatbot-displays-forbidden-or-an-error-page-what-should-i-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SmartsearchWP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-23T15:46:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The chatbot displays \"Forbidden\" or an error page\u2014what should I do? - SmartsearchWP","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.smartsearchwp.com\/en\/docs\/the-chatbot-displays-forbidden-or-an-error-page-what-should-i-do\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The chatbot displays \"Forbidden\" or an error page\u2014what should I do? - SmartsearchWP","og_description":"The chatbot may display \"Forbidden\" when the web host or a CDN blocks the REST call. 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