Search intent
Users want a decision framework instead of a blanket allow-all or block-all answer.
Practical checklist
- If citations and answer-engine visibility matter, allow search/indexing bots first.
- If content licensing matters more, block training crawlers and monitor logs.
- For private or paid content, use authentication instead of relying on robots.txt.
Copy-paste starter pattern
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Allow: / User-agent: ChatGPT-User Allow: / User-agent: Claude-SearchBot Allow: / User-agent: Claude-User Allow: / User-agent: PerplexityBot Allow: / User-agent: Perplexity-User Allow: / User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: / User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: / User-agent: Applebot-Extended Disallow: / User-agent: CCBot Disallow: / User-agent: Bytespider Disallow: / User-agent: FacebookBot Disallow: / User-agent: Amazonbot Disallow: / User-agent: cohere-ai Disallow: / User-agent: * Allow: / Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml