How to create an llms.txt file
llms.txt is a proposed standard, published at llmstxt.org in 2024: a Markdown file at the root of your site that gives language models a short summary of the site and a curated list of links to its most useful pages. It takes a few minutes to write. No major AI company documents reading llms.txt on other people's sites, and Google says Google Search, including its AI features, ignores it. So far it is used mostly to help AI coding tools read software documentation, so treat it as a low-cost extra rather than something that will change how AI tools describe you.
The format
In order, the file contains:
- An H1 with the name of the site or business. This is the only required part.
- A blockquote summary: one or two sentences saying what the site is, for whom, and where.
- Optional paragraphs with anything a reader needs to interpret the links.
- H2 sections of links, each a Markdown link, optionally followed by a colon and a short note.
- An
## Optionalsection for links that can be skipped when space is short.
# Example Plumbing
> Example Plumbing is a family-run plumbing company serving the Phoenix, Arizona metro area, offering 24/7 emergency repairs, water heater installation and drain cleaning.
Licensed and insured. Open around the clock for emergencies; booked appointments Monday to Saturday.
## Services
- [Emergency plumbing](https://example.com/emergency): 24/7 call-outs across the Phoenix metro
- [Water heaters](https://example.com/water-heaters): repair and replacement, tank and tankless
- [Drain cleaning](https://example.com/drains): clogs, camera inspection and hydro-jetting
## Company
- [About us](https://example.com/about): history, licenses and service area
- [Contact](https://example.com/contact): phone, hours and online booking
## Optional
- [Blog](https://example.com/blog): maintenance tips and seasonal adviceWrite it well
- Keep the summary factual: what you do, who for, and where. Skip slogans.
- Link to your most useful pages, using their canonical addresses. A dozen good links beat a copy of the sitemap.
- Make each note say what the page contains, so a reader can choose without opening it.
- Save it as plain UTF-8 text. Some sites also publish an
llms-full.txtwith the full text of key pages; that is optional.
Publish it
- Static hosts (Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages): put
llms.txtin the site's root orpublicfolder and deploy. - WordPress: upload it to the web root over SFTP or your host's file manager, or let your SEO plugin generate one; Yoast SEO and others offer this.
- Hosted builders (Shopify, Squarespace, Wix): not all of them let you place a file at the root of the domain. Wix generates one automatically on upgraded sites with a connected domain; on others, look for a built-in llms.txt setting or an app. If there is neither, skip it; it is optional.
Then open https://example.com/llms.txt in a browser to confirm it loads as text, not as your 404 page or, on a single-page app, as the app's HTML. You can mention it in a comment in robots.txt, but that is a courtesy, not a directive.
Keep it current
Update the file when you add, rename or remove key pages. An llms.txt that links to pages that no longer exist is worse than none.
Check it worked
Run WEBCHKR again. The LLMs.txt check confirms the file exists and is not an HTML page, and shows a preview. It does not grade the content, and because the file is optional, a missing one is reported for information rather than as a failure.