llms.txt Explained: The File That Guides AI to Your Best Content
llms.txt is a plain-text Markdown file you place
at the root of your domain (yoursite.com/llms.txt)
that gives AI engines a clean, prioritized map of your most
important content. Think robots.txt and sitemap, but written for
large language models instead of search crawlers.
As AI assistants became a real source of traffic and recommendations, site owners hit a familiar problem: how do you tell a machine which of your pages actually matter? Robots.txt controls access, and an XML sitemap lists everything — but neither tells an AI model what's important, what each page is about, or how to read your site efficiently. That's the gap llms.txt fills.
What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed standard: a single Markdown file at
/llms.txt that summarizes your site and links to your
most valuable pages with short descriptions. Because it's Markdown,
it's both human-readable and trivially easy for a language model to
parse. A model encountering your site can read one short file and
immediately understand what you offer and where to look.
It does not replace robots.txt or your sitemap — it complements them. Robots.txt says "you may crawl these paths," the sitemap says "here is every URL," and llms.txt says "here is what matters and what it means."
Why llms.txt helps your AI visibility
- Prioritization. You point AI engines straight at your best content instead of letting them guess.
- Context. Short descriptions tell the model what each page is about before it even fetches it.
- Efficiency. A clean map reduces the chance an AI misreads or skips important pages.
- Signal of intent. Publishing one shows you actively want AI engines to read and cite you.
It's an emerging standard and not yet universally consumed by every engine, but it's low-effort to add and aligns your site with where AI crawling is heading. It's one of the 17 checks in our AI visibility checker.
How to write an llms.txt file
The format is simple Markdown. Start with an H1 of your site or brand name, a one-line blockquote summary, then sections of links grouped by purpose. Here's a working template you can adapt:
# Your Brand Name
> One-sentence description of what your site offers and who it's for.
## Core Pages
- [Homepage](https://yoursite.com/): What your product or service does.
- [Pricing](https://yoursite.com/pricing): Plans and what's included.
- [About](https://yoursite.com/about): Who you are and why you're credible.
## Guides & Docs
- [Getting Started](https://yoursite.com/docs/start): Step-by-step setup.
- [FAQ](https://yoursite.com/faq): Answers to common questions.
## Contact
- [Contact](https://yoursite.com/contact): How to reach the team.
Then:
- Save the file as
llms.txt(plain text, UTF-8). - Upload it to your web root so it's reachable at
https://yoursite.com/llms.txt. - Keep the links to genuinely important pages — quality over quantity.
- Update it whenever your key pages change.
Prefer not to write it by hand? Sona's free llms.txt generator builds one from your site automatically.
llms.txt vs. robots.txt vs. sitemap
- robots.txt — controls which crawlers may access which paths. Access control.
- sitemap.xml — lists every URL for discovery. Coverage.
- llms.txt — highlights and describes your best pages for AI. Prioritization and context.
You want all three. Together they make sure AI engines can reach you, know every page exists, and understand which ones matter most.
Is your llms.txt set up correctly?
Our free checker validates your llms.txt and 16 other AI visibility signals.
Check your site free →