meta-externalfetcher

Meta · User-triggered fetcher

Fetches individual links at a user's request, including helping Meta's AI navigate websites to complete tasks for users.

Meta says that because these fetches are user-requested, this crawler may bypass robots.txt rules.

User-agent contains

meta-externalfetcher

robots.txt token

meta-externalfetcher

Respects robots.txt

No

Official IP ranges

None published

How to verify meta-externalfetcher

Meta publishes no official IP list for meta-externalfetcher, so a request can't be verified by address. Treat the user agent as a claim, not proof.

Block or allow meta-externalfetcher in robots.txt

User-agent: meta-externalfetcher
Disallow: /

Use Allow: / instead to explicitly permit it, or build a full file with the AI robots.txt generator. robots.txt is a request, not a lock: it only works for bots that honor it, and only real meta-externalfetcher traffic would.

Source: Meta documentation