llms.txt
llms.txt is a proposed standard for giving AI systems and large language models a single, predictable entry point to understand what your website is and what it offers; it does not set crawling or training permissions.
What It Is
A plain text file placed at your domain root:
https://yourdomain.com/llms.txtIt contains a concise, structured summary of your organization written specifically for AI consumption — identity, contact details, services, key pages, and links to deeper AI-readable resources like your Semantic Knowledge Graph and Markdown Knowledge Base.
Unlike a sitemap (built for search engine crawlers to discover URLs) or robots.txt (built to declare crawl permissions), llms.txt is built to be read and understood directly — it's prose and structured lists an LLM can ingest in a single fetch, without needing to crawl and parse your entire site.
Why It Matters
AI systems increasingly answer questions like "who are the best web designers in Marin County" by synthesizing information from multiple sources rather than sending the user to click through search results. Clear, accurate content and working links can help an agent that chooses to read your website understand it.
llms.txt gives AI systems a fast, reliable, low-ambiguity source to pull from. Its presence and format can be checked as part of file validation, but no AI service is guaranteed to retrieve or use it.
File Structure
A well-formed llms.txt typically includes:
# Company Name
> One-sentence description of what the organization does and who it serves.
- [Website](https://yourdomain.com/): Official homepage.
- Address: [physical address, if applicable]
- Phone: [phone number]
- Email: [contact email]
- Last Updated: [date]
---
## Services
[List of core services or offerings]
---
## Featured Projects / Products
[Notable work, case studies, or products with links]
---
## AI-Readable Layers
- llms.txt (this file): https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt
- llms-full.txt: https://yourdomain.com/llms-full.txt
- Semantic JSON: https://yourdomain.com/semantic/index.json
- Markdown directory: https://yourdomain.com/markdown/index.md
---
## Key Pages
- [About](https://yourdomain.com/about/): Organization and team.
- [Services](https://yourdomain.com/services/): Products and services.llms-full.txt
While llms.txt is a concise index, llms-full.txt provides the scanned page content in one file for an agent that chooses to fetch it.
https://yourdomain.com/llms-full.txtAIA Matrix generates this from the scanned pages on the Professional plan. Review the content for accuracy before publishing.
Where to Place It
llms.txt is usually placed at your domain root. A file may also describe a specific section of a site:
✓ https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt
✓ https://yourdomain.com/docs/llms.txtSee Installation or WordPress Setup for upload instructions.
A Note on Standards Status
llms.txt is a community-driven convention, not yet a ratified web standard. No major AI crawler is formally required to read it. That said, adoption is growing quickly, and publishing one may help agents that explicitly request it. Google Search does not use llms.txt for Search or AI Overviews visibility or rankings. Chrome Lighthouse has a separate, experimental agentic browsing audit for its presence and format.
For the broader standards landscape, see Standards Glossary.
Validating Your File
After uploading, confirm it's live by visiting the URL directly in a browser — it should display as plain text, not a 404. For deeper validation including AI crawler access, see Validation.
How AIA Matrix Generates This
On the Professional plan, AIA Matrix generates an llms.txt draft from scanned content. Check names, descriptions, and links before publishing. Professional plan users also receive an automatically generated llms-full.txt and ongoing regeneration as your site changes.