Applebot-Extended
Apple documents Applebot-Extended as a robots.txt product token that controls Apple Intelligence training use of Applebot-crawled content. Applebot itself remains the HTTP crawler.
- Operator
- Apple
- Motif family
- other_ai
- Motif class
- robots.txt product token
- In Motif classifier
- No
- robots.txt
- This token exists for robots.txt control, not as a crawl User-Agent
- Executes JavaScript
- Not applicable
- Verified in Motif
- Not an HTTP User-Agent Motif can match
What Motif will and will not claim
Motif's classifier intentionally omits Applebot-Extended for the same reason as Google-Extended: it is not a User-Agent a tracker can see. Motif also does not currently classify Applebot.
Revenue
A robots.txt token cannot pay. Applebot-Extended policy is not an acquisition channel.
Vendor documentation
Start with the vendor page at https://support.apple.com/en-us/119829. Motif stores the controlled token from a self-reported User-Agent.
Applebot-Extended User-Agent example
Not a User-Agent. Place User-agent: Applebot-Extended in robots.txt.Allow Applebot-Extended in robots.txt
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Allow: /Block Applebot-Extended in robots.txt
User-agent: Applebot-Extended
Disallow: /Does Applebot-Extended count as a visit in Motif?
Applebot-Extended is not an HTTP User-Agent, so Motif never records it as a crawler hit or a visit.
Will Motif show Applebot-Extended on my HTML pages?
Only if that client requested /m.js or POST /v1/events. HTML-only crawls of the origin never reach Motif. Saying otherwise would be a product lie.
Should I block Applebot-Extended?
This is a robots.txt product token. Allow or disallow it according to whether you want that vendor to use Applebot or Googlebot-crawled content for the named product. Motif will not observe the token either way.