llms.txt

The llms.txt file sits in the root directory of a website and describes in Markdown what the site is about and which subpages are the most important. The idea is similar to robots.txt, but the goal is different: robots.txt regulates what a crawler must not do, llms.txt offers what a language model should read.

The benefit lies in condensation. A large website forces a model to guess the essentials from many pages; a well-maintained llms.txt takes that work off its hands and reduces the likelihood that secondary matters get cited. In addition, many implementations point to Markdown versions of individual pages that can be processed without layout.

The file is a community proposal and not a binding standard; no provider guarantees to evaluate it. The effort is small and the harm if it is ignored is zero — which makes it one of the few GEO measures that pay off without any trade-off.