diff --git a/netlify.toml b/netlify.toml
index 3eae5bbef..8d22c498f 100644
--- a/netlify.toml
+++ b/netlify.toml
@@ -3,6 +3,18 @@
   [headers.values]
     Link = "</docs>; rel=\"service-doc\""
 
+# Keep archived documentation versions out of search engines.
+# The current docs live at /docs/... (no version segment) and stay indexed;
+# every numbered snapshot at /docs/1.XX/ is de-indexed. The trailing splat means
+# new versions are covered automatically, with no per-release change needed.
+# Note: we intentionally do NOT Disallow these in robots.txt. A crawler must be
+# allowed to fetch the page to see this header, and "follow" lets link equity
+# still flow to the current docs.
+[[headers]]
+  for = "/docs/1.*"
+  [headers.values]
+    X-Robots-Tag = "noindex, follow"
+
 [[redirects]]
   from = "/*/index.html"
   to = "/:splat/"