{"ID":2832086,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02371","arxiv_id":"2601.02371","title":"Permission Manifests for Web Agents","abstract":"The rise of Large Language Model (LLM)-based web agents represents a significant shift in automated interactions with the web. Unlike traditional crawlers that follow simple conventions, such as robots$.$txt, modern agents engage with websites in sophisticated ways: navigating complex interfaces, extracting structured information, and completing end-to-end tasks. Existing governance mechanisms were not designed for these capabilities. Without a way to specify what interactions are and are not allowed, website owners increasingly rely on blanket blocking and CAPTCHAs, which undermine beneficial applications such as efficient automation, convenient use of e-commerce services, and accessibility tools. We introduce agent-permissions$.$json, a robots$.$txt-style lightweight manifest where websites specify allowed interactions, complemented by API references where available. This framework provides a low-friction coordination mechanism: website owners only need to write a simple JSON file, while agents can easily parse and automatically implement the manifest's provisions. Website owners can then focus on blocking non-compliant agents, rather than agents as a whole. By extending the spirit of robots$.$txt to the era of LLM-mediated interaction, and complementing data use initiatives such as AIPref, the manifest establishes a compliance framework that enables beneficial agent interactions while respecting site owners' preferences.","short_abstract":"The rise of Large Language Model (LLM)-based web agents represents a significant shift in automated interactions with the web. Unlike traditional crawlers that follow simple conventions, such as robots$.$txt, modern agents engage with websites in sophisticated ways: navigating complex interfaces, extracting structured...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02371","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.02371v2","authors":"[\"Samuele Marro\",\"Alan Chan\",\"Xinxing Ren\",\"Lewis Hammond\",\"Jesse Wright\",\"Gurjyot Wanga\",\"Tiziano Piccardi\",\"Nuno Campos\",\"Tobin South\",\"Jialin Yu\",\"Sunando Sengupta\",\"Eric Sommerlade\",\"Alex Pentland\",\"Philip Torr\",\"Jiaxin Pei\"]","published":"2025-12-07T17:45:01Z","proceeding":"cs.CY","tasks":"[\"cs.CY\",\"cs.AI\",\"cs.MA\",\"cs.NI\"]","methods":"[\"Large Language Model\",\"Language Model\"]","has_code":false}