Claude User Agents

Understanding how Anthropic's Claude accesses and indexes web content

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Claude's primary user agent string is 'Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Claude/1.0; https://claude.ai/)'. This identifier is used when Claude browses web content through its web browsing capability.

Introduction to Claude User Agents

Anthropic's Claude AI assistant uses specific user agents when crawling and accessing web content. Understanding these user agents is crucial for website owners who want to optimize their content for Claude or control how their content is accessed by Anthropic's systems.

What is Claude's Main User Agent String?

Claude typically identifies itself with user agents that contain "Claude" or "Anthropic" in the string. Here are the known Claude user agents:

Main Claude User Agent

Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Claude/1.0; https://claude.ai/)

This is the primary user agent used by Claude when browsing the web through its web browsing capability.

What are the Different Ways Claude Accesses Web Content?

Claude can access web content in several ways:

  • Direct user requests - When a user asks Claude to retrieve information from a specific URL
  • Background information gathering - When Claude needs to supplement its knowledge
  • Training data collection - For improving Claude's capabilities (subject to robots.txt directives)

How Can I Control Claude's Access to My Content?

Website owners can control how Claude accesses their content through:

Robots.txt Configuration

You can use the following directives in your robots.txt file:

# Block all Claude access
User-agent: Claude
Disallow: /

# Block Claude from specific sections
User-agent: Claude
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /members-only/

How Can I Optimize Content for Claude?

To ensure your content performs well when accessed by Claude:

  • Use clear, well-structured HTML with proper semantic markup
  • Ensure content is accessible and doesn't rely solely on JavaScript for rendering
  • Provide clear context and comprehensive information on topics
  • Include metadata that helps Claude understand your content's purpose and authority

How Can I Track Claude Visits?

With xseek, you can track when and how Claude accesses your content:

  • Monitor Claude user agent visits in your analytics dashboard
  • Track which content Claude is accessing most frequently
  • Analyze how Claude interprets and represents your content in responses

FAQ

What is Claude's main user agent string?

Claude's primary user agent string is 'Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; Claude/1.0; https://claude.ai/)'. This identifier is used when Claude browses web content through its web browsing capability.

What are the different ways Claude accesses web content?

Claude accesses web content through direct user requests when asked to retrieve information from specific URLs, and through background information gathering. These methods allow Claude to browse and analyze web content as needed.

How can I detect if Claude is accessing my website?

You can identify Claude's access by looking for 'Claude' or 'Anthropic' in the user agent string. The main identifier contains 'Claude/1.0' and 'claude.ai' in the string, making it easily distinguishable from other web crawlers.

Related User Agents

Learn about other AI user agents to better manage your website's interaction with AI systems:

Track AI Bots on Your Website

Start monitoring AI user agents and optimize your content for better AI visibility with xseek.