What is TerraCotta?
TerraCotta is Ceramic's web crawler that indexes public content to power their web-scale search API for AI and LLMs. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when TerraCotta visits your website.
Category
| Example User Agent | TerraCotta https://github.com/CeramicTeam/CeramicTerracotta |
| Operated By | Ceramic |
| Source | Official Website |
| Triggered By | Customer request or automated indexing |
| Used for AI Model Training | Possibly |
| Affects AI Chat & Search Visibility | Possibly |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | Yes |
Why Is TerraCotta Visiting My Website?
One of Ceramic's customers may have requested data from your site, or your pages may be part of TerraCotta's standing index. A single fetch can support multiple downstream applications.
Should I Block TerraCotta?
It depends on which uses you want to support. TerraCotta may supply your content to enterprises, including AI companies, or use it in consumer-facing products. Those uses can include AI training, search, and retrieval. Allowing it may expand your visibility across those products and services, while blocking it limits that reach without affecting traditional search rankings. For context, 9% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for TerraCotta.
How Do I Block TerraCotta Using Robots.txt?
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to block TerraCotta from accessing your website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to block all AI data providers at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: TerraCotta # https://knownagents.com/agents/terracotta
Disallow: /Insights for TerraCotta
As of October 31, 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 Compliance
Country of Origin
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
Frequently Asked Questions
What Traffic Patterns Should I Expect From TerraCotta?
TerraCotta supports several kinds of automated activity, so its traffic pattern depends on the task. It may perform broad crawls to collect content or build an index, make targeted requests for specific pages, or shift between these behaviors as demand changes.
Does TerraCotta Follow Robots.txt Rules?
TerraCotta is expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule is the appropriate first step if you want to block it. Automatic Robots.txt can add and maintain that rule, while Agent Analytics lets you verify whether TerraCotta respects it.
Is TerraCotta Used for AI Model Training?
Possibly. TerraCotta supplies data to other organizations, and its customers may use that data for AI training, search, retrieval, or other purposes.
Does Blocking TerraCotta Affect AI Search or Citations?
Possibly. Blocking TerraCotta can reduce your visibility in downstream AI products that depend on its data, including search or retrieval products operated by its customers.
Does TerraCotta Access Private Content?
No special access. TerraCotta can reach public pages, and some providers use proxy networks that can bypass rate limits or geographic restrictions. Protect sensitive content with authentication rather than relying on those softer barriers.
How Can I Verify a Request From TerraCotta?
Agent Analytics tracks TerraCotta visits in real time. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "TerraCotta". Traffic may range from long crawl sequences across your site to isolated requests for specific pages, depending on whether it is collecting, indexing, or fetching content on demand. Because TerraCotta does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.
How Is TerraCotta Different From Other Ceramic Agents?
Ceramic operates separate agents for different purposes, so each agent should be evaluated and controlled independently.
- Terra Cotta: Terra Cotta is Ceramic's web crawler that indexes public content to power their web-scale search API for AI and LLMs.