---
schema_version: "newruntime-reader-dossiers-v1"
type: "reader_dossier"
slug: "bravebot"
kind: "search"
operator: "Brave"
researched_at: "2026-10-23"
confidence: "medium"
json_url: "https://newruntime.com/readers/bravebot.json"
canonical_url: "https://newruntime.com/readers/bravebot/"
---

# Bravebot

> Brave Search's crawler, which discovers and indexes pages for Brave's independent search index (also sold via the Brave Search API and used for Brave's AI answers); partly informed by opt-in Web Discovery Project data from Brave browser users.

## Dossier

- Kind: Search engines
- Operator: Brave (https://brave.com/)
- Documentation: https://search.brave.com/help/brave-search-crawler
- robots.txt tokens: none documented
- Feeds: search index
- Respects robots.txt: Partly, per its documentation. Brave's docs say the crawler does not advertise a distinct user agent and will not crawl what Googlebot cannot crawl; robots.txt is not used to prevent indexing (use noindex). Third-party directories list a 'Bravebot' token/UA not confirmed by Brave's page.
- Verification: No published method
- Labels matched in our logs: bravebot

## Why it matters to New Runtime (our interpretation)

Brave's index powers Brave Search and the Brave Search API used by many AI agents, so being indexed there reaches downstream agent readers; it may appear in logs as Googlebot-like traffic.

## Observed behaviour

- Baseline 2026-10-23 (93-day window): 4 requests on 2 days; first seen 2026-09-25, last seen 2026-10-21; Returning.
- Live numbers: https://newruntime.com/bot-traffic-history.json and https://newruntime.com/crawler-journeys.json

## Sources

- https://search.brave.com/help/brave-search-crawler
- https://knownagents.com/agents/bravebot

Identity: A family name is what a client claims in its user agent. It is verified only when its request came from the operator's published IP ranges or passed forward-confirmed reverse DNS, as reported per family in /crawler-journeys.json. Anyone can claim any name.

All dossiers: https://newruntime.com/readers.md