Rattlesnakes By Mail: AI Crawler Field Guide

Rattlesnakes By Mail is a public record of dated, sourced claims about AI crawlers and AI agents, including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot, and…

CommunityOnlineNo sign-inRU / CISFreeCan modify data

What it can do

  • Lookup Crawler: Look up a documented crawler on Rattlesnakes By Mail by name, slug, or user-agent string, and return identity fields, current claims, publication dates, and evidence URLs. Use lookup_c
  • Identify User Agent: Match an unrecognized raw User-Agent header against the crawlers documented on Rattlesnakes By Mail, and return the matched crawler plus instructions for verifying the request. Us
  • List Changes: List recorded changes to claims on Rattlesnakes By Mail, newest first, with the change date and the affected crawler. Filter by date with since, by crawler with entity, or by both. Use l

What data it sees

Do you need an account

No: the server works without sign-in

Rattlesnakes By Mail is a public record of dated, sourced claims about AI crawlers and AI agents, including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot, and Applebot. Each claim carries a verbatim quote from vendor documentation, a publication date, and an evidence URL. Five MCP tools cover crawler lookup, user agent identification, change history since a given date, free-text question matching against published claims, and token-gated correction notes.

How to connect

How to connect Rattlesnakes By Mail: AI Crawler Field Guide to Claude

The server address to paste into Claude settings:

https://ai-crawler-claims--rattlesnakesbymail.run.tools

  1. Open Claude (claude.ai or the desktop app).
  2. Go to Settings → Connectors.
  3. Click Add custom connector.
  4. Paste the server address copied below into Remote MCP server URL and click Add.
  5. In a chat, click + → Connectors and switch the new connector on.

Custom connectors are available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans (Free is limited to one). On Team and Enterprise an organization Owner adds the connector first under Organization settings → Connectors.

Authorization

After you click Add, a sign-in window for the service opens. Sign in with your own account and approve access. Claude never sees your password.

How to connect Rattlesnakes By Mail: AI Crawler Field Guide to ChatGPT

The server address to paste into ChatGPT settings:

https://ai-crawler-claims--rattlesnakesbymail.run.tools

  1. Open ChatGPT in a browser (chatgpt.com). A Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu plan is required.
  2. Turn on developer mode once: Settings → Apps → Advanced settings → Developer mode.
  3. Open Settings → Connectors and click Create.
  4. Fill in the form: Name (anything), Description (one line about what the service does), MCP server URL (copy it below).
  5. Under Authentication choose OAuth if the service requires sign-in, otherwise None. Click Create.
  6. In a new chat open + → Apps/Connectors and enable the connector.

OpenAI has renamed this section before (Connectors → Apps/Plugins). If the label differs, search settings for "developer mode". On Business/Enterprise workspaces an admin must allow custom connectors first.

Authorization

On first use ChatGPT opens the service's sign-in window. Sign in and approve access.

How to connect Rattlesnakes By Mail: AI Crawler Field Guide to Cursor

The server address to paste into Cursor settings:

https://ai-crawler-claims--rattlesnakesbymail.run.tools

Fastest: click Open in Cursor below and confirm the prompt.

Manually:

  1. In Cursor open Settings → Cursor Settings → MCP and click Add new global MCP server.
  2. Paste the JSON copied below into ~/.cursor/mcp.json (per project: .cursor/mcp.json in the repo root).
  3. Save the file. The server appears in the MCP list; authorize it there if asked.

Authorization

If the service needs sign-in, an authorize button appears next to the server in the MCP list.

Server tool list (5)

Raw names from tools/list. Only developers need these.

lookup_crawlerLook up a documented crawler on Rattlesnakes By Mail by name, slug, or user-agent string, and return identity fields, current claims, publication dates, and evidence URLs. Use lookup_crawler when the crawler is already named, or when the user agent is already known to belong to a documented crawler.
identify_user_agentMatch an unrecognized raw User-Agent header against the crawlers documented on Rattlesnakes By Mail, and return the matched crawler plus instructions for verifying the request. Use identify_user_agent when the crawler behind the User-Agent header is not yet known.
list_changesList recorded changes to claims on Rattlesnakes By Mail, newest first, with the change date and the affected crawler. Filter by date with since, by crawler with entity, or by both. Use list_changes to detect crawler policy updates published after a given date.
askMatch a free-text question against the claims published on Rattlesnakes By Mail, and return the matching claims, or no match when no published claim covers the question. Every question sent to ask is recorded, and a recorded question may be published on the public questions page at Rattlesnakes By Mail. Do not send private or identifying text to ask.
submit_noteSubmit a correction or note about a claim, an entity, or a question on Rattlesnakes By Mail. Requires a client token issued out of band by the publisher. Every note is stored as pending, and an editor reviews every pending note before publication.