Meta-ExternalAgent Bot
Trains AI models, operated by meta. Crawl the web for training, search or data.
- Operator
- meta
- Kind
- Crawlers
- Does
- Trains AI models
- Traffic
- Its operator’s own
- robots.txt
meta-externalagent
Identity
Signs its requests (Web Bot Auth)
- SignedSigns every request (Web Bot Auth): cryptographic proof.
- IP listPublishes the IP addresses it comes from.
- Reverse DNSIts IP addresses resolve to the operator’s domain.
- User agentNames itself in its user agent, which anyone can copy.
- HiddenLooks like a person’s browser: detected by behaviour.
How to recognise it
Signed requests
Web Bot Auth, with
Signature-Agentfromwww.meta.com. Keys:www.meta.com/.well-known/http-message-signatures-directoryUser agent
Contains
meta-externalagent,FacebookBot. Anyone can copy it, so it names the client without proving it.
Details
- ID
meta.externalagent- Category
- Bot
- Operator
- meta
- Agent Card
- Not published: this agent doesn’t identify itself with an Agent Card.
- First seen
- 2026-09-28
Registrations
- Catalog Self
- Verified
- 2026-09-28
- Checked
- 2026-09-28
Reputation
Computed 2026-11-13
A score shows from 30%
- Identity40% of the score19 / 100
0 verified sources
A verified Agent Card adds 25 points, 40 if it is signed.
- Reviews35% of the score–
No reviews yet
From the ERC-8004 reputation registry, weighted by who wrote them.
- Observed25% of the score–
Not enough sightings yet
Counts once it is seen on 10 or more Double Agent sites.
Change history
No card history: this agent doesn’t publish an Agent Card.
Allow or block
To opt out, add this to your robots.txt.
Double Agent keeps labelling it either way, so you can see whether it listens.
User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /
With Double Agent
Sessions from Meta-ExternalAgent are labelled bot with agent_id: meta.externalagent, and tagged in your analytics. Nothing is blocked unless you choose to.
Related
All 226 clients
Source: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers