What is Google-CloudVertexBot, and how do I block it?

Google-CloudVertexBot is Google's crawler for another purpose. The operator describes a purpose that is neither AI training nor search. From the operator's wording: crawls requested by site owners to build Vertex AI Agents.

Google does not publish a full user agent string for Google-CloudVertexBot. The robots.txt token to use is Google-CloudVertexBot. To tell whether a visit is real, compare the visitor's IP address with the published list.

Add this group to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. It asks Google-CloudVertexBot to stay out of every page.

To allow it explicitly, for example while a broader rule blocks other bots:

Each Google user agent has its own token, so you can set them one by one. This file blocks Google-Extended and allows Googlebot. Every line comes from the rows in this dataset. Whether allowing a bot keeps you in a product is Google's call, so check each crawler's page.

Google: 'It has no effect on Google Search or other products.'

Each other Google user agent has its own robots.txt token, so a rule for Google-CloudVertexBot does not cover them. See the related crawlers below.

Yes. Robots.txt token documented. Google lists a Google-CloudVertexBot robots.txt token and example group.

Robots.txt is a request, not a lock (RFC 9309).

Google publishes a list at https://developers.google.com/static/crawling/ipranges/common-crawlers.json. We did not download or parse it. A request that claims to be Google-CloudVertexBot but comes from outside that list is not Google-CloudVertexBot.