AI search / GEO
llms.txt
Definition
llms.txt is a plain-text manifest file placed at a website's root (like robots.txt) that describes the site's purpose, key content, and audience in a format AI search engines can extract cleanly.
Where the spec came from
The llms.txt spec was proposed in 2024 by Jeremy Howard of Answer.AI as an emerging standard for how sites can describe themselves to LLM-driven search engines. As of July 2026 adoption is under 3% of tracked SaaS sites in our sample. That means sites with a well-formed llms.txt are disproportionately weighted in AI-citation ranking — not because the file itself is a ranking factor, but because it makes content more legible to extraction.
What llms.txt looks like
A minimal llms.txt is a Markdown-ish plain-text file with the domain's name as an H1, a blockquote one-line summary, then Markdown-style H2 sections for What the product does, Who it's for, Key articles (as a list of links), and Contact. AI engines that support the spec (Perplexity, Claude with web search, and third-party AI agents as of July 2026) fetch it opportunistically alongside robots.txt.
How llms.txt differs from robots.txt
robots.txt controls crawler access — telling bots which paths they can and can't visit. llms.txt shapes AI citation — telling LLMs what your site is about, who it's for, and which pages contain the definitive answers for topic X. Both files live at the domain root; both are plain text; they solve different problems.
How to publish llms.txt in 15 minutes
Fill in the CiteClip llms.txt generator with your product name, one-line description, what-it-does bullets, who-it's-for bullets, and 3-5 key article links. Download the file. Upload to public/llms.txt in your Next.js / Astro / Nuxt / Vue-Vite / React-Vite project, or to your WordPress theme root. Verify by visiting https://yoursite.com/llms.txt in a browser. AI engines pick it up within 24-72 hours on next crawl.
FAQ
- What is llms.txt?
- A plain-text manifest file at a website's root that describes the site's purpose, key content, and audience in a format AI search engines can extract cleanly. Proposed 2024 by Jeremy Howard of Answer.AI.
- Where do I put llms.txt?
- At the root of your domain, e.g. https://yoursite.com/llms.txt — same location as robots.txt.
- Do I need llms.txt if I already have good SEO?
- Yes. Traditional SEO signals don't fully overlap with what AI engines score on. llms.txt is one of the highest-leverage GEO signals because adoption is under 3% as of July 2026.
- How often should I update llms.txt?
- When your product changes materially, when you publish a major new content piece worth citing, or as a quarterly hygiene check. It's a stable manifest, not a live index.
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