--- title: "Web Bot Auth: definition | Agent Ready Crawlers" description: "Web Bot Auth: An IETF protocol in which bots and agents sign HTTP requests with HTTP Message Signatures and publish their public keys. Read 2026-11-04." canonical: https://agentreadycrawlers.com/glossary/web-bot-auth site: "Agent Ready Crawlers" last_updated: 2026-11-04 section: "Glossary" --- # Web Bot Auth: definition | Agent Ready Crawlers > Web Bot Auth: An IETF protocol in which bots and agents sign HTTP requests with HTTP Message Signatures and publish their public keys. Read 2026-11-04. Source: https://agentreadycrawlers.com/glossary/web-bot-auth Site: Agent Ready Crawlers Last reviewed: 2026-11-04 Glossary # Web Bot Auth In short An IETF protocol in which bots and agents sign HTTP requests with HTTP Message Signatures and publish their public keys, so sites can verify the operator without trusting IPs or user agents. 8 Index rows sign with Web Bot Auth, and 4 operators in the ledger served a key directory on 2026-11-04. ## Definition An IETF protocol in which bots and agents sign HTTP requests with HTTP Message Signatures and publish their public keys, so sites can verify the operator without trusting IPs or user agents. ## Sourced example Google signs a subset of Google-Agent requests with Web Bot Auth as https://agent.bot.goog. [Source](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/web-bot-auth), read 2026-11-04. ## How it shows up here 8 Index rows sign with Web Bot Auth, and 4 operators in the ledger served a key directory on 2026-11-04. - [Verify Web Bot Auth signatures](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/guides/verify-web-bot-auth/) - [Verification Ledger](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/verification/) - [Web Bot Auth working-group draft reaches -01](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/news/2026-10-29-web-bot-auth-working-group-draft-reaches-01/) Previous: [Visa Trusted Agent Protocol](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/glossary/visa-trusted-agent-protocol/). Next: [Accountable designation](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/glossary/accountable-designation/). [All 41 terms](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/glossary/). ## Sources - [Authenticate requests with Web Bot Auth (experimental)](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/web-bot-auth) read 2026-11-04 Last reviewed 2026-11-04