llms.txt is a Markdown text file, published at yoursite.com/llms.txt, that introduces a website to AI assistants and agents. It says in a few lines who the company is and lists the pages that matter, each with a sentence about what’s on it. Google stated in 2026 that its search ignores the file, so the file doesn’t change your ranking on Google. It’s for other systems that read the file, takes an afternoon to make and doesn’t hurt anything.
What llms.txt is, in a short definition
llms.txt is a summary of the site written for machines to read, in a format people can also read with no effort. The proposal was published by Jeremy Howard in September 2024 and is described at llmstxt.org, which now shows a second version of the text, updated in August 2026.
The reason for the proposal is practical. A web page is made for people, with a menu, footer, banner and scripts around the content. An assistant that has to answer a question about your site in a few seconds has no room to read all that. The file delivers the essentials in one place.
The question “what is llms txt” shows up in Google autocomplete, and the term gets about 720 searches a month in Brazil, according to Google Ads Keyword Planner in October 2026. That’s small next to “SEO”, but these are people who have already heard of it and want to know whether they need one.
How it differs from robots.txt and the sitemap
The three files live at the root of the site and have similar names. They do different things.
| File | Who reads it | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt | Search and AI bots | Says what can and can’t be crawled |
| sitemap.xml | Search bots | Lists all URLs so Google can discover them |
| llms.txt | AI assistants and agents | Summarizes the site and points to the pages worth reading |
robots.txt is permission. The sitemap is an inventory. llms.txt is the introduction, with your choice of what goes in and a sentence about each page. llmstxt.org itself says the sitemap doesn’t replace the file, because it lists everything without saying anything and is usually too big to fit in a model’s context.
What Google says about llms.txt
Google Search doesn’t use llms.txt, in regular search or in AI features. This is written in the Google Search Central guide to optimizing for AI search, in the myths section, updated in July 2026.
Paraphrasing the passage, Google says you don’t need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files, markup or Markdown to appear in search, including in AI features, because search doesn’t use those files. Right after that comes the part that matters to anyone who has already made one. Keeping the file for other services that use it is fine, and it neither hurts nor helps visibility on Google.
The note was added to the documentation changelog on June 15, 2026, with a title about clarifying the use of these files. It makes clear that the rule applies to Google, and not to other assistants.
In practice, this means three things.
- anyone who sold the file as a shortcut to Google’s AI summary sold something Google denies in writing;
- if you want to appear in Google AI Overviews, you stay with the usual SEO: a good, crawlable page with structured data;
- the file can exist without fear, because Google states that it ignores it.
So who is llms.txt for?
llms.txt is for systems that read the file when answering, and not for training models. It’s what llmstxt.org describes as inference-time use. A coding agent that fetches a library’s documentation, or an assistant that opens your site to answer someone’s question.
The strongest use today is in software documentation. According to llmstxt.org, AI labs publish the file in their own developer documentation, and platforms like Mintlify and GitBook generate the file automatically.
For a service company, the gain is more modest than what’s being sold out there. You don’t gain ranking. You gain control over the first impression when an agent reads the file. It finds the right name, city, services and the link to each one, instead of piecing the answer together from a footer and a menu.
Our recommendation is simple. Make the file after the basics are done, never instead of them. An indexed page, a well-written title and description, and technical SEO in order come first. If you want the full picture of how AI chooses what to cite, the SEO for AI guide covers it.
The official llms.txt format
The format is Markdown, with the parts in a fixed order. Only the title is required.
- An H1 title with the name of the site or company. It’s the only required part.
- A short blockquote, with the greater-than sign at the start of the line, summarizing what the company does.
- Paragraphs or lists with details, without new headings.
- H2 sections with lists of links, in Markdown link format, each with an optional note after it.
- An H2 section called Optional, for secondary links the agent can skip when it’s short on space.
The 2026 version of the proposal added two things. The file can live in a subfolder and cover only what’s inside it, like /docs/llms.txt. And each page can have a clean Markdown copy at the same address, ending in .md. For a small business site, the root version is enough.
Our llms.txt, as a real example
Ciclicko’s file is at ciclicko.com.br/llms.txt and loads normally, as plain text. On October 15, 2026, it had 125 lines, 6 H2 sections, 6 blog guide subsections and 76 lines with a link. Open it in a tab and follow along.
| Part of the file | What we wrote | Why |
|---|---|---|
| H1 | Ciclicko Digital | The name we want cited, written the same way everywhere |
| Summary quote | Google Partner agency in São Paulo, its services and how we work with clients | It’s the passage an agent would read if it read only one thing |
| Details | Legal name, CNPJ (Brazilian company registration number), headquarters, contact, languages and founders | Identity data that can’t come out wrong in an answer |
| Services | One link per service, with a sentence on what it includes | Each sentence says what the page delivers, with no adjectives |
| Free audits | The two lead magnets, with what comes in the report | It’s what people ask when they want to test the agency |
| Company and portfolio | About, company data, founders and case studies | Proof that there are people and work behind it |
| Other languages | English and Spanish versions | The agent knows where to send people who don’t read Portuguese |
| Blog guides | Six topic groups, one link per article | Guides that answer questions, organized the way readers look for them |
| Optional | Privacy policy | A required page, but one nobody asks about |
Two of our decisions apply to any company. The first is that the sentence for each link is the page’s meta description, reused. It already summarizes the page, so there’s no new text to maintain. The second is that pricing stays out. Prices change, and a forgotten file with an old price is worse than no file.
How to create an llms.txt in WordPress
In WordPress, there are two ways to create the file, and the search “llms txt wordpress” is exactly about that. With both, the result is the same file opening at yoursite.com/llms.txt.
With an SEO plugin or a dedicated plugin
llmstxt.org lists Yoast SEO and AIOSEO among the tools that generate the file. There are also dedicated plugins in the official directory, like Website LLMs.txt, that build the file from your pages and posts. It’s the fastest route. The weak point is that automatic generation tends to list everything, and the value of the file is in choosing.
If you use Rank Math, check your plugin’s settings screen to see if the option exists in your version before installing another one. Our WordPress SEO guide shows where the main settings are.
With your hosting file manager
- Write the file in a plain text editor and save it as llms.txt, in UTF-8.
- Open your hosting file manager and go to the site’s root folder, where wp-config.php is.
- Upload the file to that folder.
- Open the address in your browser and check that the text appears with the right accents.
- Clear the cache of the site and the CDN, if you have one, and open it again in an incognito window.
The mistakes we see most in an llms.txt
The most common mistake is treating the file like a sales page. A phrase like “the best agency in Brazil” doesn’t help an agent answer anything. Writing what the page contains does.
Others show up often.
- a plugin-generated file with 400 links, including tags, author pages and posts from 2017;
- the company name written one way in the file and another on the site and in the Google Business Profile;
- a broken or redirected link, because the file was made once and never opened again;
- a page blocked in robots.txt that’s listed in the file, which sends the agent where it can’t go;
- pricing and deadlines inside the file, which go stale without anyone noticing.
Review the file when you publish or remove an important page. Once a quarter is enough for most businesses.
Frequently asked questions
What is llms txt? llms.txt is a Markdown file, published at the root of your site, that summarizes the site for AI assistants and agents. It includes the company name, a short summary and a list of links to the main pages, each with a sentence on what it contains.
Does llms.txt help you show up on Google? No. Google wrote in its guide to optimizing for AI search, updated in 2026, that its search ignores the file, and that having it neither hurts nor helps your ranking.
Does llms.txt replace robots.txt or the sitemap? No. robots.txt says what can be crawled and the sitemap lists your URLs. llms.txt is a hand-picked summary for whatever reads your site while answering a question.
Do I need a developer to create the file on WordPress? Not necessarily. A plugin that generates the file or a manual upload through your hosting does the job. You only need a developer if you want the text built straight from the database and always up to date.
How often should I update the file? Whenever an important page is added to or removed from the site, plus a quarterly review to check for broken links.
Want your site ready for Google and for AI?
llms.txt is the last layer. Before it come the title, description, headings, structured data and pages that answer what customers ask. That is what our website optimization does, page by page, and the file is included when it makes sense for your case.