PetalBot is the crawler for Huawei's Petal Search. A matching user agent is a clue, and Huawei's DNS steps check the source address.
What this crawler is for
PetalBot visits PC and mobile websites and builds an index. People can then search those pages in Petal Search. The index also supports content recommendations in Huawei Assistant and AI Search. Huawei says Petal Search powers both of those services. You identify the crawler from the User-Agent field. The steps below follow Huawei's webmaster page.
Aiola's PetalBot reference places this crawler in Indexing. The stored kind is index. Analytics maps that kind to the Indexing bucket. The reference record publishes no IP range list. Its page treats the token as a claim for that reason. Huawei's page, linked above, still documents a DNS check.
Match the published user agent
Huawei publishes this desktop string: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible;PetalBot;+https://webmaster.petalsearch.com/site/petalbot).
The mobile string is Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 7.0;) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile Safari/537.36 (compatible; PetalBot;+https://webmaster.petalsearch.com/site/petalbot).
The desktop string has no space around either semicolon. Mobile puts one space before PetalBot and no space before the URL. Aiola's directory sample is the desktop shape with extra spaces: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; PetalBot; +https://webmaster.petalsearch.com/site/petalbot). Compare a saved header with Huawei's matching string. Keep the header with the log line you are checking.
Confirm the source address
Huawei tells you to run host on the IP from your server log. The reverse name must sit under petalsearch.com. Run host again on that returned name. The address from the second lookup must equal the logged IP. Huawei's example uses 114.119.128.10 and petalbot-114-119-128-10.petalsearch.com. In that example, the forward lookup returns the same IP. If your forward lookup differs, the check has failed.
Aiola's crawler record has no published IP list for PetalBot. Do not turn one logged address into a standing allowlist. The documented crawl payload has no client IP field. Take the address from your server or edge log. A stored Analytics row does not finish this DNS check.
Choose allow or block rules
PetalBot follows the robots exclusion protocol. You can block the whole site, or block only some files. Huawei's full block is this group.
User-agent: PetalBot
Disallow: /The path sample allows /w/api/ and disallows /trap/. Replace those paths with directories on your site.
User-agent: PetalBot
Allow: /w/api/
Disallow: /trap/Copy one group into the file you already serve. Leave unrelated groups in place. Aiola's robots.txt guide says a named user-agent group needs its own private-path lines. That group does not inherit a wildcard group. Serve the finished file at /robots.txt on each hostname. After publishing, open the live file and read it. Remove duplicate groups that contradict each other. Keep your current sitemap line when you merge. Robots rules do not protect private pages. Keep those resources behind application access controls.
What a full block changes
Huawei says a full ban makes your pages unsearchable in the Petal search engine. The warning covers every search service Petal provides. Huawei Assistant and AI Search are powered by Petal Search. Huawei's device page describes a home-screen Petal Search widget. The widget is for Huawei smartphone owners. It searches with Petal Search, including apps, news, and images.
Old index rows can remain for several months after crawling stops. Check that the live robots group matches the edit you saved. For an urgent removal, email [email protected].
How much load it adds
PetalBot keeps crawling so it can retrieve target pages. Huawei says it tries to avoid an unreasonable load. Crawl adjustments follow server capacity, site quality, and update frequency. Send concerns about unreasonable visits to [email protected].
See the requests in Analytics
The AI view shows crawl totals, bots, pages, and activity over time. It includes Answers, Indexing, Training, and Other buckets, plus AI-answer referrals, crawler 404s, and discovery-file health. PetalBot lands in Indexing, as described in the Analytics documentation.
Crawlers do not run JavaScript, so the browser tag cannot see them. One server or edge snippet from the setup guide posts each matching hit. Only known crawler user agents are stored.
A recorded crawl is not proof that Petal Search cited the page. An empty period is not proof that Petal Search cannot reach the site.
Try it in Aiola
Download Aiola free for macOS 12 or later and Windows 10 or later. Hosted Analytics needs Pro or the 7-day trial, and the pricing page lists both. Open Analytics and compare PetalBot's crawled pages with your published robots.txt group.
