# Web Bot Auth: which bot checks let signed AI agents in 19 of 151 products we drove let our signed agent through their bot check. What Web Bot Auth is, which products did, and how to accept signed agents. Source: https://agentdrives.com/standards/web-bot-auth · Updated 2026-10-24 · as data: https://agentdrives.com/standards/web-bot-auth.json · licence CC BY 4.0 Web Bot Auth lets an AI agent sign every HTTP request, so a site can check who sent it. Our agent signs every request it makes. ## The numbers From our drives of 151 products, 1–24 Oct 2026 (https://agentdrives.com/data/facts?via=md): - Our signed agent met a bot check: 113 of 151 (https://agentdrives.com/data/facts?via=md#bot.met) - The bot check let it through: 19 of 151 (https://agentdrives.com/data/facts?via=md#bot.let_in) - Of those it met, the check stopped it: 94 of 113 (https://agentdrives.com/data/facts?via=md#bot.stopped_of_met) ## What it is Web Bot Auth is an IETF draft, now draft-ietf-webbotauth-httpsig-protocol-00 (2026-09-01) [1]. The agent signs each request with HTTP message signatures, tagged `web-bot-auth`, with a short expiry. [2] Its public keys sit in a directory at `/.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory`. [2] A bot check that verifies the signature knows which operator sent the request. The site still decides what that operator may do. Our agent signs every request it makes. [How it signs, and where its keys are](https://agentdrives.com/data/facts?via=md#agent.signs). ## What our signed agent met 113 of 151 products put a bot check in our signed agent's way. At 19, the check let it through. At 94, a check stopped it on at least one way in. Signed, not verified: during these drives no bot-check provider listed our agent as a verified bot, so a check could see the signature but had no verified identity to trust. What a listing at Cloudflare changes, measured on our own site and in new drives: [What changes when Cloudflare lists an AI agent](https://agentdrives.com/research/signed-agent-cloudflare?via=md). ## How to accept signed agents 1. **Turn on your vendor's signed-agent setting.** These bot-check vendors can verify Web Bot Auth: Cloudflare, HUMAN Security, Akamai Technologies, DataDome, F5 [3]. On Cloudflare the field is `cf.bot_management.signed_agent` [4]. AWS WAF labels a verified request `web_bot_auth:verified`. [5] 2. **Allow them where they need to start.** Sign-up, login and the page that makes an API key. Keep your rules everywhere else. [3] 3. **Keep a puzzle off those pages for verified agents.** A signature doesn't solve a CAPTCHA. [The bot-check guide](https://agentdrives.com/fixes/let-signed-agents-past-your-bot-check) has the settings per vendor. ## Check it yourself 1. **Open your sign-up page from a server.** A 403 or a “Just a moment” page means a check at the edge. ``` curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" https://example.com/signup ``` 2. **Run a free check.** Our agent signs its requests, so the check shows what a signed agent meets on your sign-up page. [Check yours free](https://agentdrives.com/scan?via=md). ## Products whose bot check let our signed agent through - [Airtable](https://agentdrives.com/tools/airtable.md?via=md): L4 Runs on its own - [Brave Search API](https://agentdrives.com/tools/brave.md?via=md): L1 Needs a person - [Brevo](https://agentdrives.com/tools/brevo.md?via=md): L1 Needs a person - [Craft](https://agentdrives.com/tools/craft.md?via=md): L4 Runs on its own - [Fillout](https://agentdrives.com/tools/fillout.md?via=md): L4 Runs on its own - [Firebase](https://agentdrives.com/tools/firebase-google.md?via=md): L3 Does the work - [Intercom](https://agentdrives.com/tools/intercom.md?via=md): L3 Does the work - [monday.com](https://agentdrives.com/tools/monday.md?via=md): L4 Runs on its own - [Nifty](https://agentdrives.com/tools/niftypm.md?via=md): L4 Runs on its own - [Plausible Analytics](https://agentdrives.com/tools/plausible.md?via=md): L3 Does the work - [Postiz](https://agentdrives.com/tools/postiz.md?via=md): L2 Gets in - [Shortcut](https://agentdrives.com/tools/shortcut.md?via=md): L4 Runs on its own - [SignWell](https://agentdrives.com/tools/signwell.md?via=md): L4 Runs on its own - [Teamwork.com](https://agentdrives.com/tools/teamwork.md?via=md): L1 Needs a person - [TidyCal](https://agentdrives.com/tools/tidycal.md?via=md): L3 Does the work - [Twenty](https://agentdrives.com/tools/twenty.md?via=md): L4 Runs on its own - [Webflow](https://agentdrives.com/tools/webflow.md?via=md): L2 Gets in - [Xero](https://agentdrives.com/tools/xero.md?via=md): L1 Needs a person - [Zulip](https://agentdrives.com/tools/zulip.md?via=md): L4 Runs on its own ## Questions **Does a signature let every bot in?** No. It says who sent the request. You choose which signed operators get in, and on which pages. **Is Web Bot Auth the same as signed agents?** Web Bot Auth is the way to sign. Signed agents are the operators a bot-check vendor knows and lists: the next page in this list. ## Sources 1. [Web Bot Auth](https://datatracker.ietf.org/api/v1/doc/document/draft-ietf-webbotauth-httpsig-protocol/) 2. [Web Bot Auth](https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-webbotauth-httpsig-protocol-00.txt) 3. [Web Bot Auth in AgentCore Browser](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock-agentcore/latest/devguide/browser-web-bot-auth.html) 4. [Bot Management variables](https://developers.cloudflare.com/bots/reference/bot-management-variables/) 5. [Bot Control rule group](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/waf/latest/developerguide/aws-managed-rule-groups-bot.html) ## More standards - [MCP](https://agentdrives.com/standards/mcp.md): A server that turns a product's actions into tools an agent can call. - [llms.txt](https://agentdrives.com/standards/llms-txt.md): A Markdown map of a product's docs, written for language models. - [OpenAPI](https://agentdrives.com/standards/openapi.md): A machine-readable description of every route of an API. - [Signed agents](https://agentdrives.com/standards/signed-agents.md): Agents a bot-check vendor has verified, which a site can let through. - [robots.txt for AI agents](https://agentdrives.com/standards/robots-txt-ai.md): The file that tells crawlers and agents which pages to leave alone. - [x402](https://agentdrives.com/standards/x402.md): A 402 answer an agent pays in a stablecoin, request by request. - [MPP](https://agentdrives.com/standards/mpp.md): A 402 payment challenge an agent pays by card or stablecoin.