Google-Agent
A user-triggered fetcher Google added to its documentation on 20 March 2026 for agents that run on Google infrastructure and browse on a person's behalf, Project Mariner among them. It carries a Chrome-like user-agent string with the token inside it and publishes its own range file, user-triggered-agents.json, separate from the other fetcher feeds.
What Google-Agent means
Google classes it as a user proxy, so it generally ignores robots.txt.
What Google-Agent does not show
It is the concrete case where the caveat on user-triggered fetch stops being theoretical: a rule addressed to it is a request the fetcher is documented not to read.
Where Google-Agent comes up on this site
- AI agents acting for people: 613 visits, one read robots.txtWhen a person asks an assistant about a page, the assistant sends a fetcher to read it: ChatGPT-User for OpenAI, Claude-User for Anthropic, Perplexity-User for Perplexity, Google-Agent for agents hosted by Google.
Terms this definition uses
user-triggered fetch · token · robots.txt
Related terms in Crawlers and access
Who is fetching, whether they are who they claim, and what your rules actually permit.
visitor resolve · published crawler ranges · operator origin · signed agent · agent arrival · agent conduct record · agent traffic index · user-triggered fetch exemption · retrieval crawler · user-triggered fetch · verified crawler · forged crawler identity · unverifiable · robots.txt · user-agent group · AI opt-out · Content-Signal · crawl budget · cloaking · challenge page at 200 · uniform refusal · nonexistent-path control · blocked render resource · off-host redirect · homepage refused · FCrDNS · Crawler trap · Conditional request · ASN blocking · operator feed · residential proxy · Google-Extended · GPTBot vs OAI-SearchBot · ClaudeBot vs Claude-User · PerplexityBot vs Perplexity-User · CCBot · Bytespider · agentic traffic · crawler classification · user agent · datacenter IP · vantage point · rate limit · delivery comparison · honeypot
Questions about Google-Agent
What is Google-Agent?
A user-triggered fetcher Google added to its documentation on 20 March 2026 for agents that run on Google infrastructure and browse on a person's behalf, Project Mariner among them. It carries a Chrome-like user-agent string with the token inside it and publishes its own range file, user-triggered-agents.json, separate from the other fetcher feeds.
What does Google-Agent not show or guarantee?
It is the concrete case where the caveat on user-triggered fetch stops being theoretical: a rule addressed to it is a request the fetcher is documented not to read.
Which area of the glossary does Google-Agent belong to?
Crawlers and access: Who is fetching, whether they are who they claim, and what your rules actually permit.
← Google-Extended · GPTBot vs OAI-SearchBot →
See it in the full glossary · 772 terms across 19 areas.
Free browser extension
See this on any site you visit, in one click.
CrawlCheck for Chrome grades every site you visit A–F and shows, from your own browser, what search engines and AI assistants are actually served. Free, no account.