Claude-SearchBot
Anthropic •
Since 2025
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What is Claude-SearchBot?
Claude-SearchBot is Anthropic's dedicated crawler for building and maintaining a search index that powers Claude's web search features. Unlike ClaudeBot which collects training data, Claude-SearchBot focuses on indexing content for real-time search retrieval, enabling Claude to provide up-to-date answers. The bot respects robots.txt directives and standard web crawling protocols, giving website owners control over whether their content appears in Claude's search results.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Claude-SearchBot/1.0; +https://www.anthropic.com)
How to Control Claude-SearchBot
Block Completely
To prevent Claude-SearchBot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Claude-SearchBot
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Claude-SearchBot
Verification Method:
Verify requests originate from Anthropic IP ranges
Verify requests originate from Anthropic IP ranges
Learn more in the official documentation.
⚠️ AI Training Notice
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect Claude-SearchBot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Claude\-SearchBot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla/5\.0 AppleWebKit/537\.36 \(KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Claude\-SearchBot/1\.0; \+https\://www\.anthropic\.com\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Claude\-SearchBot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Anthropic.*Claude\-SearchBot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Claude-SearchBot
function detect_claude_searchbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Claude\\-SearchBot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Claude-SearchBot detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Claude-SearchBot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_claude_searchbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Claude-SearchBot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class ClaudeSearchBotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Claude-SearchBot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Claude-SearchBot
function detectClaudeSearchBot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Claude-SearchBot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Claude-SearchBot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Claude-SearchBot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectClaudeSearchBot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Claude-SearchBot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Claude\-SearchBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Claude\-SearchBot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Claude\-SearchBot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Claude\-SearchBot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Claude-SearchBot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_claude_searchbot {
default 0;
~*Claude\-SearchBot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_claude_searchbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_claude_searchbot) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_claude_searchbot) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Allow | Essential for product visibility in search results |
| Blog/News | Consider Blocking | Your content may be used for AI training without compensation |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Allow | Improves documentation discoverability for developers |
| Corporate Site | Allow | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Claude-SearchBot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Claude-SearchBot
Robots.txt Name
Claude-SearchBot
Category
ai, search
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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