Write or check your llms.txt

Before you spend time on it

llms.txt is a proposal from 2024: a short Markdown file at the root of your site that points AI tools to your most useful pages. It's cheap to add, but no major assistant has said it reads it. Google says you don't need new machine-readable files or AI text files to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Does llms.txt work? goes through what's known.

Where it does help is documentation. Coding assistants and developer tools sometimes read llms.txt to find a product's docs, which is why it's common on software sites. For a local business, the time is better spent on what AI assistants actually look at.

The format

The file follows llmstxt.org:

# Bright Plumbing

> Emergency and planned plumbing for homes in Austin, TX.

Licensed and insured. Open 24/7 for emergencies.

## Pages

- [Services](https://bright.example/services): What we do and our prices
- [Service area](https://bright.example/areas): The neighbourhoods we cover

## Optional

- [Blog](https://bright.example/blog): Maintenance tips

• A "# Name" title, the only required part.
• A "> summary" in one line: what you do, for whom, and where.
• Notes in plain paragraphs or lists, without headings.
• "## " sections of links, each - [Title](https://…) with optional notes after a colon. A section called "Optional" holds pages that can be skipped.

The checker flags anything outside this: a missing title, extra "# " titles, deeper headings, lines in a section that aren't links, and links that aren't full addresses.

What matters more

If an assistant can't read your site, llms.txt won't change that. Check that first with the AI crawler checker, and make sure your robots.txt lets the right crawlers in with the robots.txt generator.