INDEPENDENT MERCHANT INTELLIGENCEPUBLIC BETA / SEPTEMBER 2026 BASELINE
learn / Merchant field guide

Robots and agent access

Permission to crawl is scoped to a user agent and a path.

Merchant answer / Editorial synthesis

Robots rules describe crawler access. They are not a certification of AI readiness or a substitute for authentication. A merchant may intentionally restrict an agent or a path. Record which user agent and URL were evaluated, because one crawler’s access does not establish another’s.

What this establishes
A practical way to inspect evidence and make the next merchant decision.

What it cannot establish
Live merchant deployment, private account eligibility, purchase completion or guaranteed AI selection.

Evidence dates and document versions remain attached to the ledger below. Editorial presentation reviewed 30 September 2026; this is not a new source verification.

Access policy is evidence

Robots rules describe crawler access. They are not a certification of AI readiness or a substitute for authentication. A merchant may intentionally restrict an agent or a path. Record which user agent and URL were evaluated, because one crawler’s access does not establish another’s.

Our scanner stops conservatively

The scanner reads robots before requesting the homepage and sampled pages. It respects disallowed paths and crawl delays within its bounded run. When policy cannot be read safely, it stops affected requests. A missing robots file is recorded distinctly from a disallow rule. No alternate identity or browser challenge bypass is attempted.

Fix the intended problem

If a useful public page is unintentionally blocked, review the relevant rule with the site owner. If access is intentionally denied, preserve that policy and obtain the evidence through an approved path. Do not open private pages simply to turn a status green.

Your next step

Evidence ledger

Go to the source.

Primary documentation records what is publicly stated. It does not independently prove outcomes or your account’s eligibility.

  • RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion Protocol

    IETF · official primary · Checked 2026-09-28

    Claim scope: Robots parsing and crawler access

    Scanner uses conservative fail-closed handling on unavailable robots.

    Source ID: robots-rfc · Published: Not stated

Dispute a fact or suggest a source