# IETF AIPREF: the AI preference vocabulary is still a draft

> The IETF AIPREF working group updated the draft vocabulary a site can use to say whether its content may be used for training and answers - what is in it and why it is too early to rely on it

Page: https://llms-full-txt.ru/en/blog/ietf-aipref-drafts/
Site index: https://llms-full-txt.ru/en/llms.txt

Event date: 2026-09-14

Published: 2026-10-03

In mid-September 2026 the IETF [AIPREF](https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/aipref/about/) working group published another revision of its draft preference vocabulary. It is an attempt to do what `robots.txt` cannot: to say not "do not go here" but "do not use this in that way".

## Which problem it solves

`robots.txt` controls crawling. It does not tell why a bot came: for a page for a search index, for text to train a model, or for an answer to a user's question.

Today that difference is expressed by bot names: one bot of a company collects training data, another serves search. It works, but requires knowing every bot by name.

## What is in the drafts

The group is preparing two documents:

- **a vocabulary** - the names of kinds of use an owner can allow or forbid: model training, use in AI systems, search;
- **a way to attach it** - how to state these preferences: in the server response and next to the `robots.txt` rules.

## What state it is in

Both documents are working group drafts. There is no RFC. The milestone set for August 2026 passed without a published standard.

In parallel there is `Content-Signal`, a line that [Cloudflare documents](https://developers.cloudflare.com/bots/additional-configurations/managed-robots-txt/) and adds to its managed `robots.txt`. It is one company's initiative, not a standard.

## What it does not mean

- That bots already respect these preferences. Bot owners have made no such commitment.
- That `robots.txt` is obsolete. It remains the only mechanism bot owners describe directly in their documentation.

## What a site owner should do

Nothing new for now. The working tool is the same: `robots.txt` rules for specific bots in three classes. The bot table checked against owner documentation: [AI crawlers and robots.txt](https://llms-full-txt.ru/en/guides/ai-crawlers/).