What the heck is llms.txt?

byFleeky

8.8K followers

1 week ago

What the heck is llms.txt?

Meet llms.txt , the “cheat sheet” for AIs that visit your website. It’s a plain‑text (Markdown) file that sits at the root of your domain (e.g. https: // yourdomain. com/ llms. txt).

Traditionally, we have files like robots.txt or sitemap.xml to guide search engines. llms.txt is kind of like that ... but for Large Language Models (LLMs) and other AI systems. Instead of sifting through messy HTML, navigation bars, scripts, ads and all the rest, an AI can open llms.txt and get a clean, curated map of the content you deem important.

In short: it’s the difference between giving the AI a messy warehouse vs. a tidy list of crates; much easier to navigate.

What does llms.txt actually do (or aim to do)?

• Clarifies your site structure for AIs : you list the major pages (docs, blog posts, product pages...), with links and short descriptions. That way the AI doesn’t have to guess what’s important.
• Improves AI comprehension + speed : by giving a minimal, well‑organized entry point, you help AI tools locate relevant content fast, without getting bogged down in irrelevant HTML.
• Future‑proofing for AI search / “GEO”: as AI-powered search / question‑answer tools (like chatbots) become more common, having an llms.txt might improve your chances that such tools “see” and cite your content correctly.
• Selective exposure: unlike full “give me everything” dumping, you choose which pages to highlight (docs, key blog posts, policies, whatever you want AI to use).

There’s even a more extreme variant: llms-full.txt, which dumps much more (or all) content (good for full documentation sites) but beware: may be too big for some AI’s context windows.

So basically: llms.txt = curated site roadmap for AI.

Pros & Cons ? Why you would (or might not) add it

+ Pros

• Low effort, high potential payoff. Creating and maintaining llms.txt is pretty simple. And it might help your site become “AI‑search ready.”
• Great for content‑heavy sites with docs, blogs, resource hubs. Places where AI might struggle to figure out what’s relevant.
• You stay in control. You decide what’s exposed. No need to give away every internal page or “everything ever.”
• Works alongside your existing SEO tools (robots.txt, sitemap.xml, SEO plugins…). No conflict.

• Cons / Caveats

• It’s still experimental. As of now, no guarantee that big LLM‑providers or AI systems will even read or respect llms.txt.
• If you make it too minimal and expose only a few pages, AIs may miss potentially useful content you left out.
• If you dump everything (like with llms-full.txt), you could hit context‑size limits for some AIs. And risk exposing private or low‑value content.
• Over time: you need to remember to keep it updated. A stale index could mislead AIs or leave out new pages.

So: llms.txt is low-cost, low-risk. But also not a magic switch. Think of it as “AI‑aware housekeeping.”

That’s it. Clean, simple, human‑readable ... and AI‑friendly.

How to add llms.txt to your WordPress site (easy mode)

If you run WordPress, you don’t need to mess with FTP or server files. Several plugins make it simple.

• Install a plugin like Website LLMs.txt . It will generate and update the file automatically.
• If you use an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO or Rank Math SEO, you can enable llms.txt support there.
• Once activated, the plugin builds the llms.txt file for you. You can verify by visiting https: // yourdomain. com/llms. txt.
• Optionally: customize which post types are included, exclude pages marked “noindex”, or even manually add descriptions for each link.

If you don’t want to use a plugin, you can also manually create a file named llms.txt, fill it with your Markdown‑formatted content, and upload it to the root of your site (via FTP or file‑manager). Works on any host.

So… should you care?

If your site is mostly simple, occasional blog posts and you don’t mind ... maybe not now. But if you run a content-rich site (blog network, documentation, knowledge base, resource hub…) then llms.txt is a very low-cost, low-friction way to future‑proof your website for the coming wave of AI indexing and generative‑search tools.

Think of it as putting a “Welcome! Here’s what matters” sign for AIs. Not strictly necessary yet… but smart to have.

✨ Fleeky

Thank you for likes, shares and comments