AI agent detection

What is ShieldLabs AI agent detection?

ShieldLabs AI agent detection identifies supported AI traffic visiting your website. It returns the detected client category, provider name when available and identity verification evidence, helping you distinguish recognized AI clients from risky automation. AI agents use large language models (LLMs) to plan and perform tasks on someone’s behalf. An agent can research products, navigate a website or complete a form. Some agents control a browser; others retrieve information without opening an interactive page.

AI agent and AI assistant detection results

The result depends on how the AI client accesses your content:

Activity	ShieldLabs detection	What you can identify
An agent uses a supported browser platform	AI Browser: `ai_browser`	The browser platform and its verified origin
An assistant retrieves pages to prepare an answer	AI Bot: `ai_bot`	The recognized assistant name, provider and available identity evidence

This page explains agent traffic using supported browser platforms. AI assistant detection explains direct content retrieval and the AI Bot result. The bot directory lists supported clients in both categories.

How ShieldLabs verifies AI-agent traffic

ShieldLabs recognizes a supported platform and checks the identity evidence available on the identification. For Browserbase and Cloudflare Browser Run, this includes signed requests that identify the browser infrastructure.

The browser platform signs its request.
ShieldLabs checks the signature against the platform’s public keys.
A successful check can establish the platform attribution and produce ai_browser: true.

The signature confirms the browser platform. It does not identify the person, customer or AI model controlling that browser. Use the browser integration to collect identifications and read the AI detection result on your backend.

Event payload

A scored webhook returns the detection and provider in its data object. This shortened, illustrative example shows recognized Browserbase traffic:

{
  "identification_id": "13f84f05-7c2a-4e9b-9f1d-2a6b8c0e4d11",
  "risk_score": 0,
  "signals": [{ "name": "ai_browser", "weight": 0 }],
  "detection_flags": { "ai_browser": true },
  "ai_browser_owner": "Browserbase"
}

The excerpt shows fields inside data of an identification.scored event. All detection flags are booleans; unshown fields are omitted here for readability. Verify the webhook signature and deduplicate deliveries by the envelope’s event_id. The webhook reference shows the complete event structure.

Field inside `data`	Type	Meaning
`detection_flags.ai_browser`	boolean	A supported browser platform was identified with qualifying evidence
`ai_browser_owner`	string, optional	Provider of the active AI Browser detection; omitted when the name is unavailable
`signals`	array	Includes `ai_browser` with weight 0 when the detection is active
`risk_score`	integer	Recognized good-bot traffic scores 0
`client_identity`	object, optional	Recognized identity claims and the attribution supported by available evidence

Read the scope of verification

When supplied, client_identity.verified describes what ShieldLabs could establish. Each entry has a subject, a value_id and references to its supporting evidence.

`subject`	Meaning
`provider`	The evidence establishes the provider
`infrastructure`	The evidence establishes a browser platform
`service`	The evidence establishes the named service, when supplied

For example, this shortened attribution identifies Browserbase infrastructure:

{
  "client_identity": {
    "verified": [{
      "subject": "infrastructure",
      "value_id": "browserbase",
      "evidence_ids": ["example-evidence"]
    }]
  }
}

An identity claim alone does not establish verified infrastructure. Read the verified entries rather than treating a name or a User-Agent header as proof.

Supported AI-agent platforms

ShieldLabs supports the following platforms. The AI browser result requires successful identity verification on the observed request.

Browser platform	Provider	Identity evidence
Browserbase	Browserbase	Request signature
Cloudflare Browser Run	Cloudflare	Request signature

The bot directory also lists supported AI assistants and crawlers. A browser platform name does not reveal which assistant or model uses it.

Using AI agent detection results

Use the detected platform and its verified attribution alongside the action your application is protecting.

Result	How to use it
`ai_browser: true`, with verified platform attribution	Recognize the platform and apply the access policy for that action
A platform claim without supporting verification	Keep the claim separate from confirmed attribution
Identity evidence conflicts with a claim	Review the conflict before granting platform-specific access
Browser Automation or Device spoofing, without a recognized platform	Review the returned risk signals and Risk Score
No AI browser detection	Read the other risk signals and Risk Score for this identification

Recognized AI browsers belong to the dashboard’s Good bot group and score 0. Apply identity verification results to your access policy and validate the expected account, domain and protected action on your backend.

View AI-agent traffic in the dashboard

Open an identification in Analytics to inspect its signals. The provider appears alongside AI Browser when available. Good bot groups AI browsers, AI bots and search bots in the aggregate views. Use a scored webhook for ai_browser and ai_browser_owner. History can include optional client_identity, but it does not return those two fields. See bot results in webhooks and History.

ShieldLabs

Core concepts

Detection

Bot detection

AI detection

Analytics dashboard

Security and privacy

Resources

Legal

What is ShieldLabs AI agent detection?

AI agent and AI assistant detection results

How ShieldLabs verifies AI-agent traffic

Event payload

Read the scope of verification

Supported AI-agent platforms

Using AI agent detection results

View AI-agent traffic in the dashboard

Next steps

AI assistant detection

Bot directory

​What is ShieldLabs AI agent detection?

​AI agent and AI assistant detection results

​How ShieldLabs verifies AI-agent traffic

​Event payload

​Read the scope of verification

​Supported AI-agent platforms

​Using AI agent detection results

​View AI-agent traffic in the dashboard

​Next steps

AI assistant detection

Bot directory

What is ShieldLabs AI agent detection?

AI agent and AI assistant detection results

How ShieldLabs verifies AI-agent traffic

Event payload

Read the scope of verification

Supported AI-agent platforms

Using AI agent detection results

View AI-agent traffic in the dashboard

Next steps