beknown

What llms.txt is, and how to write one

A small text file that tells AI assistants what your site is about. Here is what it does, what it does not do, and a template you can copy today.

Last updated: 2 August 2026

The short version

llms.txt is one markdown file at the root of your site. It says what your business is and lists the pages worth reading. An AI assistant can read it instead of guessing from your menus and page code.

It takes about ten minutes to write. It is a proposal, not a standard, and no AI company has promised to read it. It is cheap and harmless, which is why people add it anyway.

What it is not

  • It is not robots.txt. robots.txt controls what a crawler may fetch, and crawlers obey it. llms.txt grants nothing and blocks nothing.
  • It is not a ranking setting. Writing one does not move you up in Google, and it does not make ChatGPT recommend you.
  • It is not enforceable. Anything you put here is a hint. A model may use it, ignore it, or never fetch it.

We are saying this plainly because a lot of pages about llms.txt imply otherwise. If a page promises that this file gets you cited, be careful with the rest of its advice.

What it is good for

Assistants read the web the way a hurried person does. They land on a page, take what they can, and move on. Your menus, cookie banner and footer are noise to them.

llms.txt gives them the clean version: your one-line description, and the handful of pages you would actually send a customer to. When an assistant is already reading your site, it helps it get you right.

Writing one also has a side effect worth more than the file. You have to decide, in one sentence, what your business does. Most sites cannot.

The format

The convention is markdown, in this order:

  • An H1 with your business name. One per file.
  • A blockquote with a one-line summary, starting with >.
  • Optional plain paragraphs giving context.
  • H2 sections, each holding a list of links. Every link gets a name and a short description after a colon.

Use full URLs, not relative ones. The file is often read away from your site.

A template you can copy

Replace the parts in capitals. Delete any section you do not need.

llms.txt
# YOUR BUSINESS NAME

> One sentence saying what you do and who for.

Two or three lines of context. What you sell, where you work,
and anything an assistant would otherwise get wrong.

## Start here

- [Home](https://YOURSITE.com/): What you do, and what it costs.
- [Services](https://YOURSITE.com/services): The work you take on.

## Product

- [Pricing](https://YOURSITE.com/pricing): Plans and what each includes.

## Company

- [Contact](https://YOURSITE.com/contact): How to reach a human.
- [Privacy](https://YOURSITE.com/privacy): What you collect and why.

## Contact

- Email: hello@YOURSITE.com

Where to put it, and how to check

  • Upload it so it loads at yoursite.com/llms.txt. On most hosts that means your public or static folder.
  • Open that URL yourself. If it downloads instead of displaying, serve it as text/plain.
  • Check your robots.txt does not block it. A blanket Disallow: / hides this file too.
  • Read it back as a stranger. If it does not say what you sell, rewrite the first two lines.

You can read ours for a working example. It is generated from the same list that builds our sitemap, so the two cannot disagree.

Common mistakes

  • Listing every URL. Ten good links beat two hundred. This is a summary, not a sitemap.
  • Marketing language. Write what you do, not how excited you are about it. An assistant is trying to answer a question.
  • Linking pages that need a login. Anything behind a sign-in is not readable, so it does not belong here.
  • Listing private pages. If a URL is unlisted because it holds customer data, keep it out. This file is public.
  • Writing it once and forgetting. A file naming pages you deleted is worse than none.

What actually gets you named in AI answers

This is the part most guides skip, so here it is straight. We ran our own tools on this question and looked at what the assistants cited.

When ChatGPT names businesses, it is usually repeating pages it just retrieved. Those pages are roundups, comparison posts, directories and reviews written by other people. The brands that get named are the brands on those lists.

So there are two jobs, and they are not the same:

  • Be readable. llms.txt, clear headings, business schema, and a site a crawler can reach. This is what makes you usable once you are found.
  • Be referenced. Get named on the pages that already answer your buyer’s question. This is what gets you found.

llms.txt is firmly in the first job. Do it, because it is ten minutes. Then spend your real effort on the second.

Questions people ask

Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?

No. robots.txt tells crawlers what they may not fetch, and crawlers honour it. llms.txt describes what your site is and where its useful pages are. It grants nothing and blocks nothing.

Do AI assistants actually read llms.txt?

Some tools do. No major AI company has promised to. Treat it as a hint that costs almost nothing, not as a setting that changes how ChatGPT or Google answers.

Where does the llms.txt file go?

At the root of your domain, so it loads at yoursite.com/llms.txt. Not in a folder, and not renamed.

Will llms.txt get my business mentioned in ChatGPT answers?

On its own, no. AI answers name businesses that appear on pages the assistant retrieves, such as roundups, directories and reviews. llms.txt helps an assistant understand your site once it is already reading it.

How long should an llms.txt file be?

Short. One line per page, and only pages you would send a customer to. A long file listing every URL is less useful than a short one listing the ten that matter.