llms.txt: what it is, the exact format, and a copy-paste example

AI answer engines increasingly read your site before a customer ever does. llms.txt is the small Markdown file that tells them, in your words, who you are and which pages to trust. Here is the exact format, a full example you can copy, and the mistakes to avoid.

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The exact llms.txt format

It is plain Markdown served at your domain root (/llms.txt): an H1 name, an optional one-line blockquote summary, then H2 sections whose bullets are [Title](URL): short description links.

A full example (copy and adapt)

# ACME HVAC

> Family-owned heating and air-conditioning company serving Dallas, TX. 24/7 emergency repair, installation, and maintenance.

## Services
- [AC Repair](https://acmehvac.com/ac-repair): Same-day air-conditioning repair in Dallas.
- [Heating Install](https://acmehvac.com/heating): Furnace and heat-pump installation.
- [Maintenance Plans](https://acmehvac.com/plans): Annual tune-up memberships.

## Contact
- [Book online](https://acmehvac.com/book)
- Phone: (214) 555-0100
- Hours: 24/7 emergency; office Mon-Fri 8am-6pm CT

## Optional
- [Service area](https://acmehvac.com/areas): Dallas, Plano, Irving, Frisco.
- [Reviews](https://acmehvac.com/reviews)

How to write yours in five steps

  1. Create the file. Make a new plain-text file named llms.txt.
  2. Add your identity. Start with '# Your Business Name' then a one-line '> summary' blockquote.
  3. List what matters. Add H2 sections (## Services, ## Docs, ## Contact) with [Title](URL): description bullets.
  4. Publish at the root. Upload so it resolves at https://yoursite.com/llms.txt as text/plain.
  5. Keep it current. Update it whenever your offerings or key URLs change; stale entries mislead models.

Common mistakes

Frequently asked questions

What is llms.txt?

llms.txt is a plain-text Markdown file you place at the root of your site (yoursite.com/llms.txt). It gives large language models a clean, canonical summary of who you are, what you offer, and which pages matter — instead of forcing them to infer it from your nav, footer, and JavaScript. It is to AI answer engines what robots.txt is to search crawlers.

Where do I put the llms.txt file?

At your domain root, served as text/plain or text/markdown: https://yoursite.com/llms.txt. Large sites may also publish an expanded llms-full.txt with the complete content models may quote. Link it from nowhere special — crawlers check the root path by convention.

What is the exact llms.txt format?

An H1 with your name, then an optional blockquote one-line summary, then H2 sections (Services, Docs, Contact, Optional) each containing a Markdown bullet list of [Title](URL): short description links. Keep it short, factual, and link only to canonical pages. It is human-readable Markdown, not JSON.

Does llms.txt actually help me get cited by AI?

It is an emerging convention, not yet a ranking guarantee, but it is cheap and low-risk: it gives models a trustworthy, disambiguated description of your entity and your best URLs. Paired with valid JSON-LD schema and answer-shaped content, it is part of a complete Answer Engine Optimization setup.

Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?

No. robots.txt tells crawlers which paths they may fetch. llms.txt tells models what your site is about and which pages to trust. Keep both: robots.txt open to AI answer bots, and llms.txt describing your content.

Generate a correct one in one call

The AEO Schema Forge is a pay-per-call API (x402 / USDC on Base — no login, no API key). It writes a valid llms.txt for your business, and the full tier adds JSON-LD schema and answer-shaped copy too.

Generate llms.txt — 0.01 USDC Schema + llms.txt + JSON-LD — 0.05 USDC Full AEO guide

Machine-readable discovery: /.well-known/x402