How to write an llms.txt file

An llms.txt file is a short Markdown guide to your website, written for AI. It tells an agent what your business does and where the pages that matter are, so it doesn't have to work it out from menus, pop-ups and marketing copy. It takes about half an hour to write, and AgentScore checks for it.

What llms.txt is

llms.txt is a proposed standard, first published by Jeremy Howard of Answer.AI in 2024. The idea is simple: put a plain-text Markdown file at /llms.txt on your domain, the same way /robots.txt lives at the root. Where robots.txt tells crawlers what they may visit, llms.txt tells AI models and agents what is worth reading.

It's useful because AI agents have limited attention. A typical page is mostly navigation, scripts, tracking and layout. An agent asked "what's the return policy at this store?" has to dig through all of that. A good llms.txt hands it the answer's location in one request.

The format

The file is ordinary Markdown with a light structure, in this order:

1. An H1 with your name. This is the only required part.
2. A blockquote summary: one or two sentences on what you do and who for.
3. Optional paragraphs with anything an agent should know up front, such as where you ship or what you don't sell.
4. H2 sections of links, each a Markdown list item: - [Page name](URL): what it's for.
5. An "Optional" section for links an agent can skip if it's short on space.

A complete example

Here's an llms.txt for a fictional online store:

# Northwind Coffee

> Northwind Coffee roasts and sells specialty coffee beans, ground coffee and
> brewing equipment online, shipping to the US and Canada.

Orders over $40 ship free in the US. We don't sell gift cards or wholesale online;
wholesale enquiries go through the contact page.

## Shop

- [All coffee](https://northwind.example/collections/coffee): Every bean we sell, with roast level, origin and price
- [Subscriptions](https://northwind.example/subscriptions): Recurring deliveries every 2, 4 or 6 weeks; pause or cancel any time
- [Brewing equipment](https://northwind.example/collections/equipment): Grinders, kettles and pour-over kits

## Help and policies

- [Shipping](https://northwind.example/pages/shipping): Rates, delivery times and countries we ship to
- [Returns](https://northwind.example/pages/returns): 30-day returns on unopened items and equipment
- [FAQ](https://northwind.example/pages/faq): Grind sizes, freshness, subscriptions and account questions
- [Contact](https://northwind.example/pages/contact): Email and live chat hours

## Optional

- [Our story](https://northwind.example/pages/about): Who we are and how we source our beans
- [Brewing guides](https://northwind.example/blog/guides): Step-by-step guides for each brewing method

You can also see our own llms.txt.

What to include

Think about the questions people ask agents about businesses like yours, and link to the page that answers each one.

Type of site	Link to
Online store	Main categories, bestsellers, shipping, returns, sizing, FAQ, contact
Software company	Product overview, pricing, sign-up, docs, API reference, security, status page
Local or service business	Services and prices, booking, locations and hours, service area, contact
Publisher	Sections, subscription options, licensing and permissions, editorial policy

If you offer agents a direct way in, such as an API or an MCP server, list it with a link to its documentation. AgentScore looks for an MCP server mentioned in llms.txt as one of the signals that a site supports agents directly.

Common mistakes

• Serving HTML. Some site builders return your home page or a 404 page for any unknown URL. Open /llms.txt in a browser and make sure you see plain text, not a web page.
• Writing marketing copy. "The world's most loved coffee experience" tells an agent nothing. Say what you sell, where, and on what terms.
• Linking to everything. It's a guide, not a sitemap. Twenty to forty well-described links beats five hundred bare ones. Your sitemap.xml already lists every page.
• Leaving out descriptions. The text after each link is what lets an agent pick the right page without opening them all.
• Letting it go stale. Dead links and old prices are worse than no file. Review it whenever you change your navigation or policies.
• Linking to pages agents can't read. If a linked page only shows content after JavaScript runs, or sits behind a CAPTCHA, the link won't help. AgentScore checks for both.

How to publish it

1. Write the file in any text editor and save it as llms.txt.
2. Upload it so it's served at the root of your domain: https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt. On most hosts this means putting it in the same folder as robots.txt. On Shopify, WordPress and other platforms, apps and plugins can serve it for you.
3. Check it's served as plain text with a 200 status, and that your bot protection doesn't challenge AI agents that request it.
4. Run AgentScore. The "llms.txt guide for AI" check will pass once the file is live.

What about llms-full.txt?

Some sites, mostly documentation sites, also publish /llms-full.txt: the full text of their key pages in one Markdown file, so an agent can load everything at once. It's a community convention rather than part of the proposal. It's worth it for developer docs; for most stores and marketing sites a good llms.txt is enough.