# AI Crawler User-Agent Tokens in robots.txt vs Really Simple Licensing (RSL)

The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both. AI Crawler User-Agent Tokens in robots.txt is a prerequisite of Really Simple Licensing.

[3 Permit](/category/permit/) [AI Crawler User-Agent Tokens in robots.txt](/protocols/ai-crawler-tokens-robots/) · [3 Permit](/category/permit/) [Really Simple Licensing](/protocols/rsl/)

|  | [AI Crawler User-Agent Tokens in robots.txt](/protocols/ai-crawler-tokens-robots/) | [Really Simple Licensing](/protocols/rsl/) RSL |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lifecycle step | 3 Permit: What may the agent do here? | 3 Permit: What may the agent do here? |
| Answers | Which named AI crawler or agent user-agent tokens may a website allow or disallow in robots.txt, and what does each token actually control (search indexing, AI training, or live user-triggered fetches)? | What machine-readable license, price, and authorization terms govern how AI systems and crawlers may access or reuse a publisher's content? |
| Governed by | No single governing body; each vendor unilaterally defines and documents its own token(s); RFC 9309 (IETF, Standards Track) governs the underlying robots.txt syntax all of them use | RSL Collective, a vendor consortium; issue tracker at github.com/rslstandard/rsl |
| Status (issuer's words) | A convention, not a formal spec; each vendor's documentation is normative only for that vendor's own crawler | Recommendation (RSL's own maturity label, not a W3C/IETF Recommendation) — Document RSL-SPEC-1.0, Category 'Industry Specification' |
| Version | Ongoing; tokens and their scopes are updated by each vendor independently | RSL 1.0 (2025-12-10) |
| Form / transport | well-known file | document format |
| Found at | /robots.txt | /rsl.xml |
| Implementation | multi-implementation | shipping |
| Evidence | 5 verified, 1 reported | 2 verified |
| Primary use case | Control AI crawling and training use | Control AI crawling and training use |
| Last verified | 2026-10-23 (current) | 2026-10-23 (current) |
| Specification | [https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9309.html](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9309.html) | [https://rslstandard.org/rsl](https://rslstandard.org/rsl) |

## When to use which

- Choose AI Crawler User-Agent Tokens in robots.txt when your question is “Which named AI crawler or agent user-agent tokens may a website allow or disallow in robots.txt, and what does each token actually control (search indexing, AI training, or live user-triggered fetches)?” and you accept its maturity: status "A convention, not a formal spec; each vendor's documentation is normative only for that vendor's own crawler", implementation multi-implementation.
- Choose Really Simple Licensing when your question is “What machine-readable license, price, and authorization terms govern how AI systems and crawlers may access or reuse a publisher's content?” and you accept its maturity: status "Recommendation (RSL's own maturity label, not a W3C/IETF Recommendation) — Document RSL-SPEC-1.0, Category 'Industry Specification'", implementation shipping.

Guidance is derived from the two records (question, status, implementation, prerequisites, pairings), not from opinion. Each record's page carries its numbered references.

## Read the full articles

- [AI Crawler User-Agent Tokens in robots.txt](/protocols/ai-crawler-tokens-robots/): Which named AI crawler or agent user-agent tokens may a website allow or disallow in robots.txt, and what does each token actually control (search indexing, AI training, or live user-triggered fetches)?
- [Really Simple Licensing](/protocols/rsl/): What machine-readable license, price, and authorization terms govern how AI systems and crawlers may access or reuse a publisher's content?

Ask the MCP server to compare any two: the compare-protocols prompt, or get on both ids. [Connect](/connect/).

[ai-crawler-tokens-robots.json](/data/protocols/ai-crawler-tokens-robots.json) · [rsl.json](/data/protocols/rsl.json) · [Markdown](/compare/ai-crawler-tokens-robots-vs-rsl/index.md)