Kimi-SearchBot
Kimi (Moonshot AI) •
Web Crawler
What is Kimi-SearchBot?
Kimi says Kimi-SearchBot analyses pages for relevance and builds the index behind its search features. It is documented as a separate crawler from KimiBot, which has a model-training purpose. The collected string contains the correct token but not Kimi's current published full user-agent format; verify the source before attributing a request to Kimi.
User Agent String
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Kimi-SearchBot/1.0; +https://kimi.ai/)
How to Control Kimi-SearchBot
Block Completely
To prevent Kimi-SearchBot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block Kimi-SearchBot
User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: Kimi-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: Kimi-SearchBot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify Kimi-SearchBot
Verification Method:
Compare the source IP with Kimi's current published Kimi-SearchBot ranges. The collected full user-agent differs from the official example.
Compare the source IP with Kimi's current published Kimi-SearchBot ranges. The collected full user-agent differs from the official example.
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 Kimi-SearchBot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/Kimi\-SearchBot/i
Strict Pattern
/^Mozilla\/5\.0 \(compatible; Kimi\-SearchBot\/1\.0; \+https\:\/\/kimi\.ai\/\)$/
Flexible Pattern
/Kimi\-SearchBot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Kimi \(Moonshot AI\).*Kimi\-SearchBot/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for Kimi-SearchBot
function detect_kimi_searchbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/Kimi\-SearchBot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('Kimi-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($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for Kimi-SearchBot
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_kimi_searchbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'Kimi\-SearchBot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class kimi_searchbotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for Kimi-SearchBot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect Kimi-SearchBot
function detect_kimi_searchbot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /Kimi\-SearchBot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('Kimi-SearchBot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'Kimi-SearchBot';
}
next();
}
app.use(detect_kimi_searchbot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for Kimi-SearchBot
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Kimi\-SearchBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Kimi\-SearchBot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Kimi\-SearchBot" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /Kimi\-SearchBot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for Kimi-SearchBot
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_kimi_searchbot {
default 0;
~*Kimi\-SearchBot 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_kimi_searchbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_kimi_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_kimi_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: Kimi-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: Kimi-SearchBot
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: Kimi-SearchBot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
Kimi-SearchBot
Robots.txt Name
Kimi-SearchBot
Category
ai, search
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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