Meta · Training crawler guide
Meta-ExternalAgent: who runs it and how to allow or block it
Meta-ExternalAgent crawls the web for use cases such as training foundation AI models and improving Meta products by indexing content directly.
Meta-ExternalAgent at a glance
- Operator
- Meta
- Purpose
- Training It collects content for AI model training.
- Kind
- Crawler. Visits your pages under its own user agent and reads the robots.txt group that names Meta-ExternalAgent.
- What it feeds
- Meta AI model training and products
- What Meta says about robots.txt
- Meta documents a robots.txt disallow rule as the way to block Meta-ExternalAgent and notes its crawlers may cache robots.txt for up to 24 hours.
- User agent string
- Match it in robots.txt by its token, Meta-ExternalAgent. Agent tokens are compared without regard to case.
- Verified
- against Meta's official docs (opens in a new tab).
robots.txt lines
Allow or block Meta-ExternalAgent.
Paste one group into the robots.txt at the root of your domain. A group that names Meta-ExternalAgent replaces your * group for Meta-ExternalAgent, so copy any * Disallow lines you still want applied into it.
User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent
Allow: /
User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent
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: /
User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent
Disallow: /
Opens the crawlers behind live answers in ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity while Meta-ExternalAgent stays out.
Precedence
How Meta-ExternalAgent 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: Meta-ExternalAgent, Meta-ExternalAgent 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$marks the end of the path. - Allow wins a tie. When an Allow and a Disallow match with the same length, the path is allowed.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent
Disallow: /checkout
Allow: /checkout/help
Disallow: /*.pdf$
| Path | Result | Deciding rule |
|---|---|---|
/ | Allowed | No rule in the Meta-ExternalAgent 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. Meta-ExternalAgent reads only lines 4 to 7, which is why the homepage stays open to it.
Your site
See which line decides Meta-ExternalAgent on your site.
FAQ
Meta-ExternalAgent, answered.
What is Meta-ExternalAgent?
Meta-ExternalAgent crawls the web for use cases such as training foundation AI models and improving Meta products by indexing content directly. Meta-ExternalAgent is run by Meta and collects content for AI model training.
How do I allow Meta-ExternalAgent in robots.txt?
Add a group that names it: a line reading "User-agent: Meta-ExternalAgent" followed by "Allow: /". A group that names Meta-ExternalAgent replaces your * group for Meta-ExternalAgent, 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 Meta-ExternalAgent remove me from AI answers?
Blocking Meta-ExternalAgent governs whether your content is used for Meta AI model training and products. Live answers come from answer bots such as OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot, which follow their own robots.txt groups, so you can block Meta-ExternalAgent and keep those open. Meta documents a robots.txt disallow rule as the way to block Meta-ExternalAgent and notes its crawlers may cache robots.txt for up to 24 hours.
Related crawlers
Crawlers to set alongside it.
Every crawler, its operator and its docs are in the full AI crawler list.
Last updated .
Keep Meta-ExternalAgent 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.