diff --git a/gitlab-workhorse/scripts/start-workhorse b/gitlab-workhorse/scripts/start-workhorse
index 560a4b30cd1ceab55079d1d3b61ed78fbf257a50..1622c88ed178b193ae3384edc52c844c8b86a9b2 100755
--- a/gitlab-workhorse/scripts/start-workhorse
+++ b/gitlab-workhorse/scripts/start-workhorse
@@ -14,6 +14,23 @@ if [[ "${GITLAB_WORKHORSE_PROM_LISTEN_ADDR}" =~ ^.+:[0-9][0-9]{0,4}$ ]]; then
    export PROM_LISTEN_ADDR="-prometheusListenAddr ${GITLAB_WORKHORSE_PROM_LISTEN_ADDR}"
 fi
 
+# option to append/overwrite robot.txt
+if [[ ! -z "${ROBOTSTXT_CONFIG_MOUNT_PATH}" ]]; then
+   ROBOTS_TXT_APPEND_FILE="${ROBOTS_TXT_APPEND_FILE:-$ROBOTSTXT_CONFIG_MOUNT_PATH/robots_append.txt}"
+   ROBOTS_TXT_OVERWRITE_FILE="${ROBOTS_TXT_OVERWRITE_FILE:-$ROBOTSTXT_CONFIG_MOUNT_PATH/robots_overwrite.txt}"
+else
+   ROBOTS_TXT_APPEND_FILE="${ROBOTS_TXT_APPEND_FILE:-$TMPDIR/robots_append.txt}"
+   ROBOTS_TXT_OVERWRITE_FILE="${ROBOTS_TXT_OVERWRITE_FILE:-$TMPDIR/robots_overwrite.txt}"
+fi
+
+export ROBOTS_TXT_FILE=/srv/gitlab/public/robots.txt
+
+if [ -f "${ROBOTS_TXT_APPEND_FILE}" ] && [ -r "${ROBOTS_TXT_APPEND_FILE}" ]; then
+  cat ${ROBOTS_TXT_APPEND_FILE} >> ROBOTS_TXT_FILE
+elif [ -f "${ROBOTS_TXT_OVERWRITE_FILE}" ] && && [ -r "${ROBOTS_TXT_OVERWRITE_FILE}" ]; then
+   cat ${ROBOTS_TXT_OVERWRITE_FILE} > ROBOTS_TXT_FILE
+fi
+
 gitlab-workhorse \
   -logFile ${GITLAB_WORKHORSE_LOG_FILE} \
   -logFormat ${GITLAB_WORKHORSE_LOG_FORMAT} \