Indexes your content for AI-powered search results.
Recommended action: Allow access to maintain AI search visibility.
Category
AI Search Crawler
Primary use case
AI search indexing
Trust level
Generally safe
Trust Levels
- Trusted
- Generally safe
- Review recommended
- Caution advised
Trust levels are an indication based on category, operator, and robots.txt compliance. Always review bot activity for your specific situation.
Learn how we assess trustrobots.txt
Respected
TerraCotta Traffic (Last 90 Days)
What is TerraCotta?
TerraCotta is the web crawler for Ceramic AI, a web-scale search API used by AI assistants and LLMs to fetch current web information. Webmasters who want their public content included in Ceramic's index can add Allow: TerraCotta to robots.txt; the bot also respects standard robots.txt disallow rules. Operated by Ceramic Team — contact via crawler@ceramic.ai. Published IPs are listed at https://github.com/CeramicTeam/CeramicTerracotta/blob/main/ipList.txt.
What TerraCotta means for your site
TerraCotta proactively indexes your site for an AI-powered search engine, operated by Ceramic AI. Unlike AI assistants that fetch on-demand, this bot discovers and catalogs your content so it can surface in AI search results. Being indexed means your content is eligible to appear when users search through AI platforms. Not being indexed means you are invisible in this channel.
What should you do?
- Allow TerraCotta to crawl your site
- Ensure your most important pages are accessible and well-structured
- Monitor which pages are being indexed through crawl activity
- Review robots.txt to ensure you are not accidentally blocking TerraCotta
See TerraCotta on your own site
BotSights tracks every TerraCotta visit in real time, including which pages it crawls, how often, and from where.
How to identify TerraCotta
TerraCotta uses the user-agent "terracotta" and respects robots.txt. It crawls systematically, similar to traditional search engine bots.
terracottaTerraCottaHow to block TerraCotta
Three robots.txt options below. Pick the one that matches your goal. Each snippet lists every known TerraCotta user-agent pattern so the rules apply regardless of which one the bot announces.
Edit robots.txt with care
A single misplaced line can de-index your entire site. Common mistake: pasting User-agent: * followed by Disallow: / blocks every bot, not just TerraCotta, including Googlebot. Always paste the snippet between existing rules (not over them), keep the User-agent line scoped to TerraCotta's patterns, and verify with Google's robots.txt tester before deploying. If you are not sure, ask a developer first.
Option 1: Block all access
Tells TerraCotta not to crawl any URL on your site. Use this when you want the bot completely off your content.
User-agent: terracotta
User-agent: TerraCotta
Disallow: /Option 2: Block specific paths only
Keep public content crawlable but exclude sensitive or non-public sections. Add one Disallow: line per path. Replace the example paths with your own.
User-agent: terracotta
User-agent: TerraCotta
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /checkout/Option 3: Slow down with a crawl delay
Crawl-delay is a voluntary directive that asks the bot to wait the given number of seconds between requests. Useful when TerraCotta is hammering your origin and slowing the site down for real visitors, but you do not want to block it outright. The value is in seconds, so 10 means at most one request every ten seconds. Not all bots honour this directive (Googlebot ignores it; Bingbot, Yandex, and many AI crawlers do respect it).
User-agent: terracotta
User-agent: TerraCotta
Crawl-delay: 10Frequently Asked Questions
What is the User-Agent for TerraCotta?
TerraCotta identifies itself with the User-Agent string "terracotta" (alternate forms: TerraCotta). Use this in robots.txt rules or server-side filters to control its access.
Should I block TerraCotta?
Blocking TerraCotta removes your content from Ceramic AI's AI search index. If you want visibility in AI-powered search results, allow it. The trade-off is similar to deciding whether to allow Bingbot or Googlebot.
Will blocking TerraCotta affect my regular search rankings?
No. TerraCotta indexes for AI-powered search, separate from traditional search engine rankings. Blocking it does not affect Googlebot, Bingbot, or your organic SEO position.
How do I verify a request is really from TerraCotta?
User-Agent strings can be spoofed. Verify by checking the request's source IP. Check the operator's documentation for published IP ranges or reverse-DNS verification. BotSights does this automatically per visit.
Does TerraCotta respect llms.txt?
llms.txt is an emerging proposal for AI-specific crawl guidance. TerraCotta currently respects robots.txt, which is the reliable control mechanism. llms.txt support is operator-dependent and still evolving.
Is TerraCotta different from Googlebot?
Yes. Googlebot indexes for traditional Google Search. TerraCotta indexes for AI-powered search, which presents results as conversational answers with citations rather than blue link lists.
Will TerraCotta affect my site speed?
Like any crawler, TerraCotta consumes server resources. If crawl rate is excessive, set a Crawl-delay directive in robots.txt for this user-agent. Most AI search crawlers respect Crawl-delay.
Track how AI search engines discover your content
Monitor which pages AI search crawlers index, how often they visit, and whether your content is visible in AI-powered search.
- AI search crawler activity by page
- Compare AI crawl coverage with traditional search
- Spot indexing gaps before they cost visibility
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