Kernel is an AI agent in the AI assistants and agents category, operated by Kernel.
Kernel is a browsers as a service platform that enables AI agents to browse the internet.
AI assistants fetch pages on demand when a user asks a chatbot or an agent to read, summarise or act on a URL. Each request is tied to a person, but the visit carries no ad impressions or analytics. Decide per agent whether the value is worth the load.
Anyone can copy a user agent string. Transfon Security also checks where each request comes from, so a request that claims to be a known crawler but comes from the wrong network is treated as a fake, not as the real crawler.
We have not confirmed whether Kernel follows robots.txt. Add a rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.
User-agent: Kernel Disallow: /
User-agent: Kernel Disallow: /private/ Disallow: /search
User-agent: Kernel Allow: /blog/ Disallow: /
User-agent: Kernel Allow: / User-agent: * Disallow: /
User-agent: Kernel group, Kernel ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.Kernel from Kernel's user agent; check Kernel's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.
Kernel reads pages for a person who asked an AI about them. The visit carries no ad impressions, so exclude it from ad requests and decide whether it may read paywalled content.
Transfon Security for publishersAgent visits can click through landing pages and fill in forms. Exclude Kernel from conversions so campaign optimisation is based on people.
Transfon Security for advertisersAgents like Kernel can compare prices and may soon place orders. Decide whether agents may reach checkout, and verify them before they do.
Transfon Security for e-commerceKernel can sign up, log in and call endpoints on a user's behalf. Rate limit it on sign-up and API routes, where fake trials and abuse start.
Transfon Security for SaaS and APIsrobots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows Kernel by name in the Top Bots report, so you can see how often it visits and which pages it reads. Block or allow it with a User Agent rule, or slow it down with a rate limit decision rule.
Transfon Security
Kernel is an AI agent in the AI assistants and agents category, operated by Kernel. Kernel is a browsers as a service platform that enables AI agents to browse the internet.
We have not confirmed whether Kernel follows robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped, and block it by user agent if it did not.
Add "User-agent: Kernel" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "Kernel" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.
No. robots.txt is voluntary, so Kernel may not follow it, and anyone can send Kernel's user agent, so a fake Kernel ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.
AI assistants fetch pages on demand when a user asks a chatbot or an agent to read, summarise or act on a URL. Each request is tied to a person, but the visit carries no ad impressions or analytics. Decide per agent whether the value is worth the load.
Transfon Security identifies every bot in this directory in your traffic reports, flags fake search crawlers, and lets you allow, block or rate limit each bot.
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