# PetalBot: Huawei's search crawler

> PetalBot is Huawei's search crawler. What it reads for, its user agent, whether it follows robots.txt, and how to verify and allow it.

Canonical: https://picked.so/ai-crawlers/petalbot
Last updated: 2026-10-16

PetalBot is Huawei's crawler for Petal Search. Its index also feeds the content Huawei Assistant and Huawei's AI Search recommend.

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| robots.txt token | `PetalBot` |
| Company | Huawei |
| What it's for | Search index |
| Follows robots.txt | Follows it |
| Verify | Reverse DNS: petalsearch.com |
| Owner's documentation | https://webmaster.petalsearch.com/site/petalbot |

## User agent

```
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible;PetalBot;+https://webmaster.petalsearch.com/site/petalbot)
```

## Blocking it

Huawei says PetalBot follows robots.txt, and that blocking it takes your pages out of Petal Search and the services it powers. Pages already indexed can take months to drop out.

## What to know

Huawei prints two user agents, one for desktop and one for mobile (`Android 7.0`, `Mobile Safari`). Both carry the `PetalBot` token, which is what robots.txt and log filters match.

Cloudflare files PetalBot under AI crawlers, so it shows up in AI crawler reports even though Huawei describes it first as a search engine crawler.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is PetalBot?

PetalBot is Huawei's crawler for Petal Search. Its index also feeds the content Huawei Assistant and Huawei's AI Search recommend.

### Does PetalBot follow robots.txt?

Huawei says PetalBot follows robots.txt, and that blocking it takes your pages out of Petal Search and the services it powers. Pages already indexed can take months to drop out.

### How do I check a PetalBot visit is real?

Look up the visitor's IP: the hostname should end in petalsearch.com, and that hostname should resolve back to the same IP.

### Should I allow PetalBot?

Allow it. It builds the index Huawei's answers are drawn from, so blocking it means those answers can't cite your pages.