In short. Yandex documents cross-site robots.txt redirects and uses the target file's directives when the target returns 200 OK.
Definition: Yes. Yandex documents that a robots.txt file on one site can redirect to a robots.txt file on another site, and that Yandex takes the target file's directives into account.
Key facts
- Yandex requires the target robots.txt file to return an HTTP 200 OK response, according to its robots.txt documentation.
- Yandex says the target file's directives are taken into account when the redirect crosses from one site to another.
- RFC 9309 says crawlers should follow at least five consecutive redirects, including redirects across authorities such as hosts.
- RFC 9309 says rules reached within five redirects are followed in the context of the initial authority.
- Google documents that its robots.txt rules apply to the host, protocol, and port where the file is hosted, and separately documents its own handling of five or more redirect hops.
What does Yandex document?
Yandex's requirements place robots.txt in the site's root directory. The same page says the file can redirect to another robots.txt file whose server returns 200 OK. It then states that Yandex supports redirection from a robots.txt file on one site to the file on another site, with the target directives taken into account.
The page gives a migration as a use case. Its question and answer section repeats the behavior: when one robots.txt file redirects to another, Yandex obeys the target file. The documented answer covers a cross-site destination, so the relevant object is the target site's robots.txt response rather than an HTML page or a meta refresh.
How many redirects can the chain contain?
RFC 9309, the Robots Exclusion Protocol standard, describes HTTP 301 and HTTP 302 responses as possible redirects. It says crawlers should follow at least five consecutive redirects, even across authorities. If robots.txt is reached within five consecutive redirects, the crawler must fetch and parse it, then follow its rules in the context of the initial authority. After more than five consecutive redirects, crawlers may treat robots.txt as unavailable.
Yandex's page does not state a Yandex-specific redirect-hop limit. The RFC rule is therefore a protocol baseline, not a published Yandex implementation limit.
HTTP 301
Location: https://other.example/robots.txt
The redirect must lead to a robots.txt resource that Yandex can access with a 200 OK response. A failed destination changes the result: Yandex says that when the file does not meet its requirements, the site is considered open for indexing.
What does the cross-host scope mean?
RFC 9309 says that a robots.txt file reached through a redirect is followed in the context of the initial authority. In practice, the target file supplies the rules for the site whose robots.txt request started the chain. The target host does not automatically become the site whose rules are being evaluated by that request.
Google's robots.txt specification describes a related scope boundary for Google: rules apply only to the host, protocol, and port where the robots.txt file is hosted. That is Google's documented behavior, while RFC 9309 supplies the cross-authority wording used above. It is useful evidence for separating the source host, destination host, protocol, and port when checking a redirect.
How can you check the setup?
Check the source site's root URL and record the redirect status and destination. Then request the destination robots.txt and verify that it returns 200 OK and contains the directives intended for the source site.
Yandex instructs site owners to add the target site in Yandex Webmaster and verify site ownership when testing the file. It also links to a server response checker for checking robots.txt availability. The Google documentation says that Google fetches robots.txt with an HTTP non-conditional GET request on HTTP and HTTPS, which describes the request type to include in a separate comparison.
Related terms
- Where does a robots.txt file need to be hosted?
- Do robots.txt rules apply across protocols and ports?
- What happens when robots.txt returns a server error?
FAQ
Does the destination robots.txt need to return 200 OK?
Yes. Yandex's requirements say the redirected robots.txt file must be one for which the server returns a 200 OK code.
Do the target file's rules apply to the original site?
Yandex says the directives in the target file are taken into account. RFC 9309 describes those rules as being followed in the context of the initial authority.
Is five redirects the exact Yandex limit?
Yandex's documentation does not publish an exact hop limit. RFC 9309 says crawlers should follow at least five consecutive redirects, including cross-host redirects.
Sources
- Yandex Webmaster, "Using robots.txt", undated
- IETF, "RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion Protocol", September 2022
- Google for Developers, "How Google Interprets the robots.txt Specification", 31 August 2026
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