---
title: Bots & user agents
description: "The two automated agents IsonAI operates, IsonSearchBot and IsonAI-User: what each one does, its user agent, how to control it, and how to verify its requests."
last_verified: 2026-10-17
---

# Bots & user agents

IsonAI operates two automated agents. They have different purposes, so site owners can control each one separately.

| User agent | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **IsonSearchBot** | Crawls public web pages to build the Ison Search index. It follows robots.txt.<br>User agent: `IsonSearchBot/1.0 (+https://search.isonai.com/bot)`<br>Published IP addresses: [search.isonai.com/bot/ips.json](https://search.isonai.com/bot/ips.json)<br>Details: [search.isonai.com/bot](https://search.isonai.com/bot) |
| **IsonAI-User** | Visits a web page when a person using IsonAI asks about it. It is not used to crawl the web automatically.<br>User agent: `Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko); compatible; IsonAI-User/1.0; +https://www.isonai.com/bot` |

## IsonSearchBot

IsonSearchBot builds the index behind [Ison Search](/en/ison-search/). It reads `robots.txt` for each host and applies the `IsonSearchBot` group (or `*`), including `Disallow` and `Crawl-delay`.

To stop it from crawling your site:

```
User-agent: IsonSearchBot
Disallow: /
```

Its crawl rate, verification and removal requests are described at [search.isonai.com/bot](https://search.isonai.com/bot).

## IsonAI-User

IsonAI-User supports user actions in IsonAI. When a user asks IsonAI a question or asks it to read, summarize, or analyze a specific link, IsonAI may visit the relevant page with this agent to answer, and it shows a link to the source in its response.

- It is used only for actions that a user starts in IsonAI.
- It is not used to crawl the web automatically.
- It is not used to build or rank the Ison Search index.

Because these requests are made on behalf of a user, robots.txt rules may not apply. To stop IsonAI-User from reaching your site, block requests whose User-Agent contains `IsonAI-User`, or contact us.

## Verifying requests

Both agents support HTTP Message Signatures ([Web Bot Auth](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-meunier-web-bot-auth-architecture/)). Signed requests carry a `Signature-Agent` header that names where the public keys are published:

- **IsonSearchBot**: `Signature-Agent` is `"https://search.isonai.com"`, with public keys in the [IsonSearchBot key directory](https://search.isonai.com/.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory).
- **IsonAI-User**: `Signature-Agent` is `"https://www.isonai.com"`, with public keys in the [IsonAI-User key directory](https://www.isonai.com/.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory).

Signing is being rolled out gradually. Unsigned requests can still be recognized by their User-Agent and, for IsonSearchBot, by its published IP addresses.

IsonAI-User does not use a fixed, published IP range, so verify its signature rather than the IP address.

## Contact

For questions about either agent, email [hello@epithre.com](mailto:hello@epithre.com).