meta-externalagent
The primary Meta AI crawler, collecting training data for Llama models and content for Meta AI products. Introduced in 2024 as the successor to FacebookBot for AI collection. Meta documents robots.txt support, with some independent reports of inconsistency.
What it feeds
Meta documents this crawler as covering both foundation model training and direct content indexing for its products.[1] It arrived as the successor to the older FacebookBot token for AI collection, which is why a site can see it appear in logs with no change of its own.
How to identify it
The user agent is unusually plain: the token, a version and a link to the crawler documentation.[2] Meta publishes no address list for it, so a claimed hit cannot be verified against an official range - the name is the only evidence, and the name is free to copy.
Blocking and its consequences
Meta documents robots.txt support for the token, with a caveat on timing: changes may take up to 24 hours to take effect because crawlers cache robots.txt for that long.[3] Judge a new rule after a day, not after an hour.
Verification
Operator documentation: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers
A user agent is a claim, not a proof: any client can send any name. Where an operator publishes IP ranges, a reverse lookup is the only way to tell a real visit from an impersonation.
Seen by Baseline
Requests from this bot across sites tracked by Baseline, last 30 days. Aggregated over - sites, never reported per site.
References (3)
Last updated 2026-09-05. Written and maintained by Baseline Labs.
