Glossary · Crawlers and access
signed agent
A request whose user agent names no tracked crawler, yet carries a Web Bot Auth signature that verifies against a published key directory. The signature proves who sent it even though the name does not.
What signed agent means
A request whose user agent names no tracked crawler, yet carries a Web Bot Auth signature that verifies against a published key directory. The signature proves who sent it even though the name does not. It can identify a new or self-hosted agent that has adopted request signing; it cannot say what that agent is for, which is why such requests are reported separately from the named agents.
What signed agent can and cannot support
| It can support | It cannot support |
|---|---|
| A request whose user agent names no tracked crawler, yet carries a Web Bot Auth signature that verifies against a published key directory. | The signature proves who sent it even though the name does not. It can identify a new or self-hosted agent that has adopted request signing; it cannot say what that agent is for, which is why such requests are reported separately from the named agents. |
Where signed agent comes up on this site
- Generic AEO scores penalise sites for checks that do not apply to themWeb Bot Auth is described from the caller side, because it identifies a site that sends signed agent requests, not one that receives traffic.
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 · operator origin · 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 signed agent
What is signed agent?
A request whose user agent names no tracked crawler, yet carries a Web Bot Auth signature that verifies against a published key directory. The signature proves who sent it even though the name does not.
What does signed agent not show or guarantee?
The signature proves who sent it even though the name does not. It can identify a new or self-hosted agent that has adopted request signing; it cannot say what that agent is for, which is why such requests are reported separately from the named agents.
Which area of the glossary does signed agent belong to?
Crawlers and access: Who is fetching, whether they are who they claim, and what your rules actually permit.
← operator origin · agent arrival →
See it in the full glossary · 688 terms across 19 areas.