What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a voluntary proposal, stored at yourdomain.com/llms.txt, for publishing a curated Markdown map of important site pages. A service may choose to consume it, but publishers cannot require an engine to honor it.
Jeremy Howard proposed the format in September 2024 for documentation-oriented workflows. The proposal defines a pre-structured map; it is not a replacement for sitemap.xml, robots.txt, normal internal links, or search indexing.
A proposal-compliant file includes a site-name header, a description block, and sections listing page URLs with descriptions. An optional llms-full.txt can include fuller content. Adoption by major answer engines is not established.
Google Search explicitly ignores llms.txt, including for AI Overviews and AI Mode, so the file neither helps nor hurts Google rankings. CiteFuel validates it only as optional interoperability and file hygiene, not as a citation advantage.