llms.txt

llms.txt is the AI era's answer to robots.txt. Proposed in 2024, it's a simple markdown file placed at yourdomain.com/llms.txt that hands LLMs a clean, curated map of your most important pages — cutting through navigation, ads, and clutter to the content you want retrieved and cited.

Where robots.txt tells crawlers what they can't touch, llms.txt tells AI models what matters most. It's an emerging, not-yet-universal standard — but adoption is climbing among brands serious about AI visibility.

The logic is pure Generative Engine Optimization: make your best content maximally extractable, and remove friction between the engine and the answer you want it to give. A strong llms.txt is one of the most direct technical levers a brand has to influence how it's read by ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.