Meta-ExternalFetcher
Companion to Meta-ExternalAgent. Fetches URLs in real time when a Meta AI user asks a question requiring fresh web data. Per-query, user-driven.
Specs
| Vendor | Meta |
| Category | FETCH |
| robots.txt token | Meta-ExternalFetcher |
| Renders JavaScript | partial JS |
| Honors robots.txt | yes |
User-Agent string
meta-externalfetcher/1.1 (+https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/crawler)Considerations
- User-prompted only — does not crawl on its own schedule.
- May render JS depending on the flow.
- Meta's docs note that the bot will sometimes carry the original user's UA prepended; the meta-externalfetcher token is the operative identifier.
robots.txt recipe
User-agent: Meta-ExternalFetcher
Allow: /Sources: Meta · Crawlers documentation