What is synthetic-monitoring-agent?
synthetic-monitoring-agent is a probe agent developed by Grafana Labs that performs network checks and monitoring tests from distributed locations. It executes various types of health checks on websites and services to monitor uptime, performance, and availability as part of Grafana's Synthetic Monitoring application. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when synthetic-monitoring-agent visits your website.
Overview
| Operated By | Grafana Labs |
| Source | Official Website |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | No |
| Insights Last Updated | September 15, 2026 |
Do you operate this agent? Contact us to suggest an update.
Category
Expected Behavior
synthetic-monitoring-agent's traffic often follows fixed intervals like a cron job. Activity may consist of short recurring checks or occasional intensive bursts, but it usually remains limited to a specific set of pages or endpoints.
synthetic-monitoring-agent's User Agent
| User Agent | synthetic-monitoring-agent/v0.65.0 (linux amd64; f78f7f61496ef9fa99be6f05c76dd9f11131ee6b; 2026-09-07T17:30:05Z; +https://github.com/grafana/synthetic-monitoring-agent) |
How To Block synthetic-monitoring-agent With Robots.txt
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to request that synthetic-monitoring-agent not access your website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to request the same of all developer helpers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: synthetic-monitoring-agent # https://knownagents.com/agents/synthetic-monitoring-agent
Disallow: /Insights for synthetic-monitoring-agent
As of September 15, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
Country of Origin
Robots.txt Blocking Trend
7% of top websites block synthetic-monitoring-agent in their robots.txts.
Overall Developer Helper Traffic
0.8% of all web traffic came from developer helpers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Block synthetic-monitoring-agent?
Only if no one on your team relies on it. synthetic-monitoring-agent may support uptime monitoring, performance tests, or audits. Blocking it without checking first can silently disrupt those workflows. For context, 7% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for synthetic-monitoring-agent.
Does synthetic-monitoring-agent Follow Robots.txt Rules?
No. synthetic-monitoring-agent is not expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule only communicates your preference. Enforce the block with firewall or server rules, then use Agent Analytics to verify that its requests stop.
Does synthetic-monitoring-agent Access Private Content?
Only when configured with access. A team may grant synthetic-monitoring-agent credentials to monitor staging sites or private health endpoints. Without those credentials, it sees only public pages.
How Can I Tell if synthetic-monitoring-agent Is Visiting My Website?
Agent Analytics tracks synthetic-monitoring-agent visits in real time. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "synthetic-monitoring-agent". Look for repeated checks of the same pages or endpoints at regular intervals. Because synthetic-monitoring-agent does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.
Why Is synthetic-monitoring-agent Visiting My Website?
Someone, most likely on your own team, configured synthetic-monitoring-agent to check your site. Uptime monitors, performance testers, and audit tools visit only the sites or endpoints they are told to watch.