What is DuckAssistBot ?
DuckAssistBot is the user-agent associated with DuckDuckGo’s DuckAssist feature, an AI-powered summarization tool that augments search results with natural language answers. The bot fetches real-time content from sources like Wikipedia and other public domain repositories to generate those summaries. Although it is not a general-purpose web crawler, it does initiate targeted HTTP requests when generating specific answers for user queries.
Who is operating DuckAssistBot ?
DuckAssistBot is operated by DuckDuckGo Inc., a privacy-focused search engine company based in the United States. DuckDuckGo integrates AI-generated responses into its search engine results, and DuckAssistBot supports this by fetching authoritative content during query processing. The company has communicated this behavior via developer documentation and privacy disclosures.
Why you should be interested in DuckAssistBot ?
DuckAssistBot doesn’t index entire websites like Googlebot, but it does access specific pages on demand. If your content is referenced in factual sources or linked from knowledge repositories, it may be used in AI-generated answers shown to DuckDuckGo users. This can drive indirect visibility or undesired summarization. Although usage volume is low, implications for branding, accuracy, and content control exist.
How to block DuckAssistBot ?
1. robots.txt File:
Add the following rule to your robots.txt file
# block DuckAssistBot User-agent: DuckAssistBot Disallow: /
2. User-Agent Filtering:
Server-side filtering using the exact user-agent string can be applied for stronger enforcement.
3. IP Verification:
Since DuckDuckGo does not publish IP ranges, log-based identification is recommended.
About the bot
Owner: DuckDuckGo Inc.
Owner URL: duckduckgo.com
Bot URL: duckduckgo.com/duckassist
Bot User Agent: DuckAssistBot/1.0
Respects robots.txt: Yes
