Kimi (Moonshot AI): User Agent, robots.txt Rules & Safety

Q: What is the official user-agent string for Kimi (Moonshot AI)?

The official user-agent string for Kimi (Moonshot AI) is: Kimi-User. Use this exact string in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. Matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive. Verify a request genuinely comes from Kimi (Moonshot AI) by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.

Q: How do I block Kimi (Moonshot AI) in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file: User-agent: Kimi-User Disallow: / This instructs Kimi (Moonshot AI) not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).

Q: How do I verify if Kimi (Moonshot AI) is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string Kimi-User (case-insensitive: grep -i "Kimi-User" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).

Quick Facts

User-Agent:: Kimi-User
Category:: AI & LLM Bots
Operator:: Moonshot AI
Safety:: Safe
Blocking Impact:: Low - No SEO ranking impact
SEO Impact Score:: 2/10
Official docs:: www.moonshot.ai

What is Kimi (Moonshot AI)?

Kimi (Moonshot AI) is an on-demand AI fetcher operated by Moonshot AI. It retrieves a page only when a user explicitly asks an AI assistant or agent to read, summarize, or act on a specific URL. Because it is triggered by real user intent rather than bulk crawling, blocking it mainly prevents users from pulling your content into Moonshot AI's assistant.

Kimi (Moonshot AI) is an on-demand AI fetcher operated by Moonshot AI. It retrieves a page only when a user explicitly asks an AI assistant or agent to read, summarize, or act on a specific URL. Because it is triggered by real user intent rather than bulk crawling, blocking it mainly prevents users from pulling your content into Moonshot AI's assistant. Kimi (Moonshot AI) uses the user-agent token Kimi-User. You can control it via robots.txt, meta tags (noai), or the emerging llms.txt standard. Robots.txt is voluntary; for hard enforcement, combine it with server-level IP blocking.

What happens if you block Kimi (Moonshot AI)?

✅ **No SEO Impact** - Blocking Kimi (Moonshot AI) does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Kimi (Moonshot AI) is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.

Generally safe to allow; provides legitimate crawling value.

How to block Kimi (Moonshot AI) with robots.txt

<code>User-agent: Kimi-User</code> - Matching is case-insensitive. Robots.txt is fetched from the root of each subdomain separately.

Block completely (robots.txt)

User-agent: Kimi-User
Disallow: /

Allow all (robots.txt)

User-agent: Kimi-User
Allow: /

Block private only (robots.txt)

User-agent: Kimi-User
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /

Nginx server block

# Nginx: Hard-block Kimi (Moonshot AI)
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Kimi-User") {
    return 403 "Bot blocked";
}

Apache .htaccess

# Apache: Hard-block Kimi (Moonshot AI)
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "Kimi-User" bad_bot
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Deny from env=bad_bot

Meta robots tag

X-Robots-Tag header

X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow

Is Kimi (Moonshot AI) safe to allow?

Yes, Kimi (Moonshot AI) is a **safe and legitimate** crawler operated by Moonshot AI. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.

Verify by reverse-DNS lookup: legitimate Kimi (Moonshot AI) requests resolve to Moonshot AI's domain.

What does Kimi (Moonshot AI) do?

Understanding Kimi (Moonshot AI)'s purpose helps you decide whether to allow or block it.

Fetches a page only when a user asks an AI assistant to read it
Summarizes or extracts the URL the user provided
Triggered by real user intent, not bulk crawling
Low traffic volume compared with training crawlers
Blocking it prevents users from pulling your content into the assistant

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official user-agent string for Kimi (Moonshot AI)?

The official user-agent string for Kimi (Moonshot AI) is: Kimi-User. Use this exact string in robots.txt, Nginx, Apache, or Cloudflare firewall rules to target this bot. Matching in robots.txt is case-insensitive. Verify a request genuinely comes from Kimi (Moonshot AI) by performing a reverse-DNS lookup on the source IP.

Is Kimi (Moonshot AI) safe?

Yes, Kimi (Moonshot AI) is a **safe and legitimate** crawler operated by Moonshot AI. It follows the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309) and can be controlled with standard robots.txt rules.

Will blocking Kimi (Moonshot AI) hurt my SEO?

✅ **No SEO Impact** - Blocking Kimi (Moonshot AI) does not affect your rankings in Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Kimi (Moonshot AI) is an AI crawler, not a traditional search indexer. You can freely block it via User-agent / Disallow: / without any SEO penalty.

How do I block Kimi (Moonshot AI) in robots.txt?

Add the following lines to your /robots.txt file:

User-agent: Kimi-User
Disallow: /

This instructs Kimi (Moonshot AI) not to crawl any path on your site. To block only specific sections, replace / with the path (e.g., Disallow: /blog/).

Does Kimi (Moonshot AI) respect robots.txt?

Kimi (Moonshot AI) is operated by Moonshot AI and is expected to fetch and parse /robots.txt before crawling, following RFC 9309. For hard enforcement, combine robots.txt with server-level IP or user-agent blocking.

How do I verify if Kimi (Moonshot AI) is crawling my site?

Search your web server access logs for the string Kimi-User (case-insensitive: grep -i "Kimi-User" /var/log/nginx/access.log). Filter by user-agent in your log analytics tool (GoAccess, AWStats, etc.).