Create a Filter List

A filter list is a text file containing, in order:

An [Adblock Plus] header line identifying it as following Adblock Plus syntax
Optional special comments (one per line)
Filters or normal comments (one per line)

The header line

The header must appear first in the file and should read [Adblock Plus]. It may include a version number like [Adblock Plus 2.0], though versions are disregarded by the eyeo Browser Ad-Filtering Solution.

Special comments

Special comments form a single consecutive block of lines beginning with ! and following key:value format.

The Browser Ad-Filtering Solution interprets these special comments:

Key	Value	Meaning	Example
Redirect	URL	Downloads filter list from provided URL instead of current location	`! Redirect: https://new-location.com/list.txt`
Title	String	Human-readable filter list title accessible via API methods	`! Title: My filters`
Version	String	Arbitrary version descriptor accessible via API methods	`! Version: 202305310750` or `! Version: 5.0.4`
Expires	Number + optional text	Update frequency in days (or hours if followed by text starting with 'h')	`! Expires: 1 days` or `! Expires: 7`

Additional special comments may be interpreted by other eyeo Ad-Filtering Solutions:

Homepage
License
Checksum

The special comments block terminates upon encountering a non-! key : value line; subsequent comments are treated as standard comments.

Filters and normal comments

This section contains the actual filter rules, one per line, using Adblock Plus syntax.

Comment lines begin with ! and are ignored during parsing. Filters continue until end-of-file.

Examples

[Adblock Plus]
! Version: 202306020710
! Title: My list
! Expires: 2 days

! Allow loading all resources on mysite.net
@@||mysite.net^$document,domain=mysite.net

! Unhide banner element on example.com
example.com#@#.banner

Working examples:

https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/easylist.txt
https://abptestpages.org/en/abp-testcase-subscription.txt

Hosting

The Browser Ad-Filtering Solution only downloads filter lists from HTTPS servers; HTTP is prohibited. However, localhost is excepted for development and testing purposes.

Updating

The eyeo Browser Ad-Filtering Solution periodically checks for filter list updates, respecting the interval specified in ! Expires or defaulting to 5 days.

Update intervals are clamped between 1 hour and 14 days.

Failed downloads or parsing errors result in retaining the previous version with retry scheduled in one hour.

Limitations

"Snippet filters" and header filters are disregarded in filter lists but allowed as individual custom filters. They are only permitted on ABP Filters specifically.

Anatomy of a filter list