Archives and Research Crawlers
Arquivo-web-crawler user agent
Operated by Arquivo.pt
Arquivo-web-crawler is the crawler of Arquivo.pt, the national web archive of Portugal.
The Arquivo-web-crawler bot at a glance
- Arquivo-web-crawler is operated by Arquivo.pt and fetches pages to power a specific product feature.
- The robots.txt token for Arquivo-web-crawler is Arquivo-web-crawler.
- Blocking an archive crawler has no effect on search rankings.
- Arquivo-web-crawler robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is Arquivo-web-crawler?
Arquivo-web-crawler preserves Portuguese web content for research and history.
Public registries list it as an archiver.
Should you block Arquivo-web-crawler?
Allow Arquivo-web-crawler unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking an archive crawler has no effect on search rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | Archived copies can be reused by researchers and AI datasets; blocking stops new snapshots but does not remove existing ones. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not documented |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow Arquivo-web-crawler
Put the robots.txt rule in the file at the root of every domain and subdomain, for example https://example.com/robots.txt. The token Arquivo-web-crawler is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop Arquivo-web-crawler, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block Arquivo-web-crawler
User-agent: Arquivo-web-crawler
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow Arquivo-web-crawler
User-agent: Arquivo-web-crawler
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep Arquivo-web-crawler out of private areas only
User-agent: Arquivo-web-crawler
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to Arquivo-web-crawler
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Arquivo\-web\-crawler)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to Arquivo-web-crawler
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (Arquivo\-web\-crawler) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "Arquivo-web-crawler")How to verify real Arquivo-web-crawler traffic
Arquivo.pt publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Arquivo-web-crawler, so the user agent cannot be verified. Anyone can send the same string. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
How to find Arquivo-web-crawler in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts Arquivo-web-crawler requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "Arquivo-web-crawler" access.log | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20For a full report per AI bot, upload the log to the AI Log File Analyzer, a free tool by Justin Hà.
Arquivo-web-crawler user agent string
The full user agent Arquivo.pt publishes for Arquivo-web-crawler. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
Arquivo-web-crawler (compatible; +https://arquivo.pt/robot)Arquivo-web-crawler FAQ
Arquivo-web-crawler identifies itself with the robots.txt token "Arquivo-web-crawler". A typical request header reads: Arquivo-web-crawler (compatible; +https://arquivo.pt/robot)
Arquivo.pt has not documented how Arquivo-web-crawler treats robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule and back it with a server rule if the traffic matters to you.
Blocking an archive crawler has no effect on search rankings. Archived copies can be reused by researchers and AI datasets; blocking stops new snapshots but does not remove existing ones.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: Arquivo-web-crawler" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Arquivo.pt publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Arquivo-web-crawler, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "Arquivo-web-crawler", for example with: grep -i "Arquivo-web-crawler" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file.
Sources: Public bot registry. Last reviewed by Justin Hà.
See which of these bots actually reach your website
The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits from GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and other AI crawlers in your server log, for free. The GEO Technical Package sets up robots.txt, llms.txt and crawler access for AI search.
