What is llms.txt? The AI brief that lives at your root
robots.txt tells crawlers where they may go. Sitemap.xml tells them what exists. llms.txt is the newest of the three and the only one that lets you speak in your own words — a short brief telling a language model what you are and how to describe you.
What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a plain-text, markdown-formatted file served from the root of your domain — at /llms.txt, alongside robots.txt and sitemap.xml. It gives a language model a concise, curated brief: your name, a short description of what you do, and links to the pages that matter most, each with a sentence of context. The proposal originated with Jeremy Howard and the team at Answer.AI in 2024, and adoption has grown steadily since.
The problem it solves is real. A model trying to understand your site has to reconstruct meaning from navigation, marketing copy and whatever it can parse. llms.txt short-circuits that guesswork. Instead of hoping a good summary is inferred, you hand one over — the single place on the web where you get to write the description an assistant reads.
What goes in an llms.txt file
The format is intentionally minimal: an H1 with your name, a blockquote summary, and markdown headings with lists of links. No proprietary syntax, no schema to learn. A model — or a person — can read it top to bottom in seconds.
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## Facts
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The three root files do different jobs and are not substitutes for one another. Together they cover access, inventory and interpretation.
| File | Answers the question | Audience |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt | Where are you allowed to crawl? | All crawlers, including AI bots |
| sitemap.xml | What pages exist and when did they change? | Search and AI crawlers |
| llms.txt | What is this site and how should you describe it? | Language models |
Does llms.txt actually work yet?
Honestly: not as a guarantee. No major engine has committed to treating llms.txt as authoritative, and you should not expect publishing one to move citations on its own. What it does is remove ambiguity cheaply. When a model does consult it, it gets your framing instead of a guess. The cost is an afternoon and the downside is essentially nil, which makes it a sensible hedge on a young convention rather than a bet on a settled one.
There is also a second-order benefit: writing an llms.txt forces you to state, in plain language, what you actually are and which five pages matter. Teams routinely discover their own positioning is muddier than they thought the moment they try to compress it into a blockquote.
How to write a good llms.txt
- Open with your name as an H1 and a two-to-three sentence blockquote: what you sell, who for, and what makes you different.
- List your five most important URLs under a Key pages heading, each with a short, factual description — not marketing copy.
- Add a short Facts section for the details a model would otherwise have to hunt for: pricing shape, contact, key differentiators.
- Write for a reader who will never meet you and has thirty seconds. Be specific, drop the adjectives, and never state anything you would not stand behind.
- Serve it at /llms.txt as plain text, and keep it current when your positioning or key pages change.
Frequently asked questions about llms.txt
Where does llms.txt go?
At the root of your domain, served at /llms.txt as plain text — the same location as robots.txt and sitemap.xml.
Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?
No. robots.txt controls where crawlers may go. llms.txt describes what your site is and how to talk about it. They solve different problems and you want both.
Will llms.txt improve my rankings?
It is not a ranking factor. It is a machine-readable brief for language models. Treat it as cheap insurance for AI visibility, not as an SEO lever.
Do I need one if I already have structured data?
They complement each other. Structured data expresses discrete facts in a rigid schema; llms.txt gives a model your narrative framing and a curated set of links. Having both covers more ground than either alone.
Related guides
- AEOWhat is AEO?Answer engine optimisation is the practice of getting AI assistants to read, understand and cite your site. What it is, how citation works, and how to improve it.
- GEOWhat is GEO?Generative engine optimisation is the practice of being represented well inside AI-generated answers like Google's AI Overviews. What it is, its ranking signals, and how to optimise.
- SEOWhat is SEO?Search engine optimisation is the practice of making your site easy to find and rank in search. Its three pillars, and why it is still the foundation for AEO and GEO.
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