meta-externalagent: user agent, purpose, and whether to allow it
meta-externalagent collects web content for Meta AI training and product features.
Specification
| Operator | Meta |
|---|---|
| Purpose | TrainingCollects content that may be used to train future models. Blocking it removes your content from future training runs. It does not affect whether a model can find and cite you today. |
| Agent kind | CrawlerAutonomous crawler. Appears in your logs under its own user-agent. |
| User agent | meta-externalagent/1.1 (+/documentation/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers) |
| robots.txt token | meta-externalagent |
| robots.txt compliance | Documented: respects robots.txt |
| Verification | No published method, user agent is the only signal |
| Sends referral traffic | No |
| Attaches a citation | No |
| Status | Active |
| Legacy Kymo category | training |
| Source | Operator documentationhttps://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers |
| Verified on |
What blocking it costs you
Blocking it removes your content from Meta AI training. Meta documents robots.txt as the block mechanism: add a disallow for meta-externalagent. Third-party reports of inconsistent compliance exist, so verify with your own logs after adding the rule.
robots.txt directives
Both blocks below address meta-externalagent only. Rules for one token never apply to another, even from the same operator.
Allow meta-externalagent
User-agent: meta-externalagent Allow: /
Block meta-externalagent
User-agent: meta-externalagent Disallow: /
Questions
What is the meta-externalagent user agent?
meta-externalagent/1.1 (+/documentation/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers)
Does meta-externalagent respect robots.txt?
Documented: respects robots.txt
What does blocking meta-externalagent cost me?
Blocking it removes your content from Meta AI training. Meta documents robots.txt as the block mechanism: add a disallow for meta-externalagent. Third-party reports of inconsistent compliance exist, so verify with your own logs after adding the rule.
Related crawlers
All AI crawlers and control tokens
See this bot in your own logs
Kymo classifies every crawler hit server-side using this registry, so meta-externalagent shows up under Meta with its purpose attached. Read how crawler detection works, or run a free free AI visibility check to see what each crawler currently gets back from your server. No account needed for the check.