Anthropic · Search crawler guide
Claude-SearchBot: who runs it and how to allow or block it
Claude-SearchBot navigates the web to improve the relevance and accuracy of search results for Claude users.
Claude-SearchBot at a glance
- Operator
- Anthropic
- Purpose
- Search It builds the search index behind AI answers.
- Kind
- Crawler. Visits your pages under its own user agent and reads the robots.txt group that names Claude-SearchBot.
- What it feeds
- Claude search results
- What Anthropic says about robots.txt
- Anthropic states that disallowing Claude-SearchBot stops your content from being indexed for search, which may reduce your visibility in Claude's search answers.
- User agent string
- Match it in robots.txt by its token, Claude-SearchBot. Agent tokens are compared without regard to case.
- Verified
- against Anthropic's official docs (opens in a new tab).
robots.txt lines
Allow or block Claude-SearchBot.
Paste one group into the robots.txt at the root of your domain. A group that names Claude-SearchBot replaces your * group for Claude-SearchBot, so copy any * Disallow lines you still want applied into it.
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Disallow: /
# AI crawler access, generated by Suede AI Agent Studio
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
Allow: /
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Claude-User
Allow: /
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Perplexity-User
Allow: /
User-agent: Amzn-SearchBot
Allow: /
User-agent: Amzn-User
Allow: /
Opens Claude-SearchBot together with the other search and assistant crawlers in one paste.
Precedence
How Claude-SearchBot reads your robots.txt
Major crawlers apply the robots.txt standard (RFC 9309) the same way. Three rules decide every path.
- A named group beats *. When a group says
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot follows that group and ignores the * group entirely. With no named group, the * group applies; with neither, every path is allowed. - The longest matching rule wins. Inside the group, the Allow or Disallow line with the longest matching path decides, so
Allow: /checkout/helpoverridesDisallow: /checkoutfor the help pages.*matches any run of characters and$marks the end of the path. - Allow wins a tie. When an Allow and a Disallow match with the same length, the path is allowed.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Disallow: /checkout
Allow: /checkout/help
Disallow: /*.pdf$
| Path | Result | Deciding rule |
|---|---|---|
/ | Allowed | No rule in the Claude-SearchBot group matches, so it is allowed |
/checkout/cart | Blocked | line 5: Disallow: /checkout |
/checkout/help | Allowed | line 6: Allow: /checkout/help |
/menu.pdf | Blocked | line 7: Disallow: /*.pdf$ |
Line 2 still blocks every crawler without a group of its own. Claude-SearchBot reads only lines 4 to 7, which is why the homepage stays open to it.
Your site
See which line decides Claude-SearchBot on your site.
FAQ
Claude-SearchBot, answered.
What is Claude-SearchBot?
Claude-SearchBot navigates the web to improve the relevance and accuracy of search results for Claude users. Claude-SearchBot is run by Anthropic and builds the search index behind AI answers.
How do I allow Claude-SearchBot in robots.txt?
Add a group that names it: a line reading "User-agent: Claude-SearchBot" followed by "Allow: /". A group that names Claude-SearchBot replaces your * group for Claude-SearchBot, so repeat any Disallow lines from your * group that should still apply to it. To block it instead, use "Disallow: /" in that group.
Does blocking Claude-SearchBot remove me from Claude search results?
It can. Claude-SearchBot builds the index behind Claude search results, so blocking it keeps your pages out of that index and out of the answers drawn from it. Anthropic states that disallowing Claude-SearchBot stops your content from being indexed for search, which may reduce your visibility in Claude's search answers.
Related crawlers
Crawlers to set alongside it.
Every crawler, its operator and its docs are in the full AI crawler list.
Last updated .
Keep Claude-SearchBot where you want it. Every Monday.
Run the free check for the full crawler table and ranked fixes, unlock the $9.99 fix kit for paste-ready files, then let the AI Visibility Watch template read your robots.txt weekly and flag any answer bot that becomes blocked.