Installation

Where Each File Belongs

AIA Matrix generates files that need to live in specific locations on your server. Root-level files must sit at your domain's top level — not inside a subfolder.

yourdomain.com/
├── robots.txt              ← root
├── llms.txt                ← root
├── llms-full.txt           ← root
├── semantic/
│   ├── index.json
│   ├── about.json
│   ├── services.json
│   └── ...
└── markdown/
    ├── index.html           ← human-friendly directory page
    ├── index.md
    ├── about.md
    ├── services.md
    └── ...

Why root matters: AI crawlers and standards like the proposed llms.txt specification expect these files at the domain root (e.g., https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt), the same way robots.txt and sitemap.xml already work. A file placed in a subfolder won't be discovered automatically.

Method 1 — FTP / SFTP (Most Hosting Providers)

1. Open your FTP client (FileZilla, Cyberduck, or similar) or use the File Manager in your hosting control panel (cPanel, Plesk)
2. Connect to your server using credentials from your host
3. Navigate to your site's root directory — usually public_html, www, or htdocs
4. Upload robots.txt, llms.txt, and llms-full.txt directly into this root folder
   • If a robots.txt already exists, see Merging robots.txt below — don't simply overwrite it
5. Create two new folders if they don't exist: semantic and markdown
6. Upload the corresponding files into each folder

Method 2 — Hosting File Manager (No FTP Client Needed)

Most hosts (Bluehost, SiteGround, GoDaddy, HostGator) provide a browser-based File Manager:

1. Log in to your hosting control panel
2. Open File Manager
3. Navigate to your site's root folder
4. Use Upload to add the root files, and New Folder to create semantic/ and markdown/, then upload files into each

Method 3 — Git / Static Site Deployment

If your site is built with a static site generator (Next.js, Hugo, Jekyll, Astro) or deployed via Git (Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages):

1. Place root-level files (robots.txt, llms.txt, llms-full.txt) in your project's public/ or static/ directory — this is the folder your framework copies directly to the site root on build
2. Place semantic/ and markdown/ folders inside that same public//static/ directory
3. Commit and push — your next deployment will include the new files automatically

Merging an Existing robots.txt

Most sites already have a robots.txt. Don't replace it wholesale — merge the AI Discovery Layer into it instead.

1. Open your current robots.txt
2. Add the AI crawler User-agent blocks and Content-Signal directives from your AIA Matrix download underneath your existing rules
3. Add your llms.txt, llms-full.txt, semantic/index.json, and markdown/index.md URLs to the Sitemap: declarations at the bottom

See robots.txt for the full directive reference.

Fixing the "403 Forbidden" Directory Error

If visiting yourdomain.com/markdown/ or yourdomain.com/semantic/ directly in a browser returns a 403 error, this is expected — most servers block directory listings by default for security. Your individual files (e.g., /markdown/about.md) will still work correctly.

To make the directory itself browsable and presentable, place an index.html file inside that folder. AIA Matrix's Professional plan auto-generates this for you; see your download package for markdown/index.html.

Verifying the Upload

Once uploaded, check each file loads correctly by visiting it directly in your browser:

https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt
https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt
https://yourdomain.com/llms-full.txt
https://yourdomain.com/semantic/index.json
https://yourdomain.com/markdown/index.md

Each should display as plain text or JSON — not a 404 or 403 error.

For deeper validation (Google indexing, AI crawler access, Content Signals), see Validation.

Common Issues

For anything not covered here, see Troubleshooting.