---
schema_version: "newruntime-reader-dossiers-v1"
type: "reader_dossier"
slug: "meta-externalfetcher"
kind: "ai_answer"
operator: "Meta"
researched_at: "2026-10-23"
confidence: "high"
json_url: "https://newruntime.com/readers/meta-externalfetcher.json"
canonical_url: "https://newruntime.com/readers/meta-externalfetcher/"
---

# Meta-ExternalFetcher

> Fetches individual links at a user's request, including for agentic AI tasks in Meta AI products.

## Dossier

- Kind: AI search & answer engines
- Operator: Meta (https://www.meta.com/)
- Documentation: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers
- robots.txt tokens: meta-externalfetcher
- Feeds: live answer fetch
- Respects robots.txt: No, per its documentation. Docs: because fetches are user-initiated, this crawler may bypass robots.txt rules.
- Verification: No published method
- Labels matched in our logs: meta-externalfetcher

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

A hit means a Meta AI user or agent asked for a specific New Runtime URL.

## Observed behaviour

- Baseline 2026-10-24 (94-day window): 3 requests on 2 days; first seen 2026-10-13, last seen 2026-10-21; Returning.
- Live numbers: https://newruntime.com/bot-traffic-history.json and https://newruntime.com/crawler-journeys.json

## Sources

- https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers

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