Glossary · Crawlers and access
operator origin
The web origin an operator signs its agent requests from, as named in the Signature-Agent header of a Web Bot Auth request. A valid signature proves who signed; it proves the claimed agent only when the signer is an origin that agent's operator actually uses.
What operator origin means
The web origin an operator signs its agent requests from, as named in the Signature-Agent header of a Web Bot Auth request. A valid signature proves who signed; it proves the claimed agent only when the signer is an origin that agent's operator actually uses. It can upgrade a request whose address could not be checked; it cannot vouch for a user agent that names one operator while the signature belongs to another.
What operator origin can and cannot support
| It can support | It cannot support |
|---|---|
| The web origin an operator signs its agent requests from, as named in the Signature-Agent header of a Web Bot Auth request. | A valid signature proves who signed; it proves the claimed agent only when the signer is an origin that agent's operator actually uses. It can upgrade a request whose address could not be checked; it cannot vouch for a user agent that names one operator while the signature belongs to another. |
Terms this definition uses
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 · 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 · Google-Agent · 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 operator origin
What is operator origin?
The web origin an operator signs its agent requests from, as named in the Signature-Agent header of a Web Bot Auth request. A valid signature proves who signed; it proves the claimed agent only when the signer is an origin that agent's operator actually uses.
What does operator origin not show or guarantee?
A valid signature proves who signed; it proves the claimed agent only when the signer is an origin that agent's operator actually uses. It can upgrade a request whose address could not be checked; it cannot vouch for a user agent that names one operator while the signature belongs to another.
Which area of the glossary does operator origin belong to?
Crawlers and access: Who is fetching, whether they are who they claim, and what your rules actually permit.
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See it in the full glossary · 688 terms across 19 areas.