What Is llms.txt?
A short reference on the plain-text file that tells AI assistants what your website is about — and how to publish one from your site settings.
The short version
llms.txt is a plain Markdown file, published at yoursite.com/llms.txt, that gives AI systems — chatbots, research agents, AI-powered search — a short, curated map of your site: who you are, what you offer, and which pages matter most.
Think of it as a sitemap written for a reader that can't click around. It can only read.
Why a text file, and why now
When a person visits your site, they scan the navigation, notice what's emphasized, and click around until they find what they need. AI assistants that answer questions by reading websites directly don't have that luxury — they see a page of HTML, CSS, and scripts, and have to guess at what actually matters.
llms.txt was proposed in 2024 as a plain-language answer to that problem, the same way robots.txt and sitemap.xml became conventions for search engines two decades earlier. It doesn't replace those files — it serves a different reader.
What's inside
The format is deliberately plain: a Markdown file with a title, a one-line summary, and grouped lists of links. Here's what a small business's file might look like:
# Harbor & Pine Woodworks
> Handmade oak and walnut furniture, built to order in Portland, Maine.
Harbor & Pine is a two-person workshop making solid-wood furniture since 2016.
We build to custom dimensions and ship across the US.
## About
- [Our story](/about): Who we are and how each piece is built.
- [Workshop](/workshop): Where and how the furniture is made.
## Products
- [Dining tables](/tables): Custom sizes, oak or walnut.
- [Chairs & benches](/seating): Matched sets or single pieces.
- [Commissions](/custom): Start a custom build.
## Optional
- [Care guide](/care): Cleaning and maintenance tips.
- [Shipping & returns](/shipping): Rates, timelines, policy.
The ## sections group links by theme. The short line after each link is what earns it a place in the file — write it for a reader deciding whether to follow the link, not for a search engine. You can also use global data like “[description_long]” “[company_name]”
Publishing yours
Your file is generated from your site's own content, so there's nothing to hand-write from scratch.
Open Settings → Website Settings.
Scroll to the LLMS.txt card.
If your site hasn't been published yet, the card will read "Publish to generate llms.txt." That's expected — the file is built from your live site, so there's nothing to show until you’ve added details to the file.
Save your changes. They'll go live the next time you publish from domain.com/llms.txt
How it compares
| File | Written for | Purpose |
| AI assistants | A curated, human-readable summary of what matters on your site. |
| Search engines | A complete, machine-formatted list of every page to crawl and index. |
| Any crawler | Rules for which paths a crawler is and isn't allowed to visit. |
A few things worth knowing
It's public. Anyone — and anything — can read
yoursite.com/llms.txtIt's a hint, not a contract. Assistants that support the file treat it as a strong signal, not a guarantee — they may still read the rest of your site.
Keep it current. Revisit it after a major change — a closed location, a discontinued product line — the same way you'd update a sitemap.
Questions people ask
Do I need one? It's not required. It's a low-effort way to help AI-driven search and assistants describe your business accurately, and adoption is growing.
Does it replace my sitemap? No. sitemap.xml is still what search engines use for crawling and indexing. llms.txt is a separate, shorter file aimed at AI systems that reason over a page rather than index it.