llms.txt Guide: What It Is and How to Add It (2026)

llms.txt is a proposed standard for a Markdown file at yoursite.com/llms.txt that gives AI models a short summary of your website and links to its most useful pages. It is a reading guide, not an access rule, and no major AI company has publicly confirmed it uses llms.txt to decide which businesses to cite or recommend.

It takes ten minutes to add, costs nothing and does no harm. This guide explains what is actually known about llms.txt as of November 2026, shows an example file, and walks through adding it on WordPress and Shopify.

What is llms.txt?

llms.txt was proposed by Jeremy Howard in September 2024 and is documented at llmstxt.org. The idea is simple: websites are built for humans, with navigation, scripts and ads that make them awkward for language models to read. A short Markdown file at a known location can tell an AI tool what the site is and where the important content lives.

The specification is light. According to llmstxt.org, a file contains, in order:

1. An H1 with the site or project name. This is the only required part.
2. A blockquote with a short summary.
3. Optional paragraphs or lists with key details (no headings).
4. H2 sections of links, each as [name](url) with an optional note after a colon.
5. An "Optional" H2 section by convention, for links an AI tool can skip if it needs less context.

The proposal also suggests offering clean Markdown versions of important pages at the same URL with .md added. A related convention, llms-full.txt, puts the full text of key pages into a single file.

llms.txt vs robots.txt vs sitemap.xml

The key point: llms.txt cannot block or allow anything. If you want to control AI crawler access, that is still robots.txt. You can check what your robots.txt allows with Nyrav's free AI bots checker.

Which AI companies use llms.txt?

This is where most articles overclaim, so here is what is publicly documented.

Google: not used for Search

• In June 2025, Google's John Mueller wrote that "no AI system currently uses llms.txt," adding that server logs show major chatbots fetching pages but not the llms.txt file.
• At a Google Search Central event in 2025, Gary Illyes reportedly said Google doesn't support llms.txt and isn't planning to.
• Google's AI features documentation says you don't need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
• In mid-2026, Mueller described llms.txt as "purely speculative for now" in a Reddit discussion.

There is one twist. Chrome's Lighthouse tool now includes agentic browsing audits, one of which checks for an llms.txt file at the domain root. That audit is about how ready a site is for AI agents using a browser. Google does not present it as a search ranking signal.

OpenAI, Anthropic and Google: they publish it for their docs

llmstxt.org notes that the AI labs publish llms.txt files for their own developer documentation, naming OpenAI, Anthropic and Google's Gemini. OpenAI's crawler documentation page, for example, points to an llms.txt as its documentation index.

Publishing a file for developers to paste into coding tools is not the same as using other sites' files to decide what ChatGPT or Claude recommends. None of these companies has published documentation saying their consumer chat or search products read llms.txt for that purpose.

What site owners report seeing

Some site owners report AI crawlers requesting llms.txt in their server logs. One widely shared report described OpenAI requesting a site's llms.txt regularly, as covered by Search Engine Land. A fetch shows a bot looked at the file. It does not show the file changed any answer.

Where llms.txt clearly is useful

• Developer tools and coding assistants. Many documentation sites publish llms.txt so developers can feed accurate docs into AI coding tools.
• AI agents that are already on your site. An agent browsing a store or a docs site can use the file as a map.
• Platforms adopting it by default. Shopify now generates llms.txt for every storefront (details below), and major WordPress SEO plugins offer it as a toggle.

So should you add one?

Yes, if it takes you less than an hour. It is low-cost, harmless, and support may grow. No, if it would delay work that is known to matter: being indexed, not blocking AI crawlers, answering customer questions clearly on your pages, and being mentioned on the sites AI tools cite. Our guide to AEO vs GEO vs SEO covers that order of work.

Example llms.txt file

Here is a realistic example for a small business, a Shopify store selling e-bikes. Copy the structure and replace the details with yours.

# Mile High E-Bikes

> Mile High E-Bikes is an e-bike shop in Denver, Colorado, selling commuter, cargo and mountain e-bikes online across the US and in-store, with repairs and test rides at our Denver workshop.

Key facts:
- Founded 2019. Store: 1200 Example St, Denver, CO.
- Free US shipping on bikes over $1,500. 30-day returns.
- Brands: our own Mile High line plus selected partner brands.

## Products
- [Commuter e-bikes](https://www.example.com/collections/commuter): Bikes for city riding, 40-60 mile range
- [Cargo e-bikes](https://www.example.com/collections/cargo): For kids, groceries and deliveries
- [Mountain e-bikes](https://www.example.com/collections/emtb): Full-suspension trail bikes

## Help
- [E-bike buying guide](https://www.example.com/pages/buying-guide): How to choose motor, battery and frame size
- [Shipping and returns](https://www.example.com/policies/shipping-policy): Delivery times and costs
- [Repairs and servicing](https://www.example.com/pages/repairs): Prices and booking for our Denver workshop

## Optional
- [Blog](https://www.example.com/blogs/news): Rides, maintenance tips and news
- [About us](https://www.example.com/pages/about): Our story and team

Tips for a useful file

1. Write the summary for a stranger. Say what you sell or do, where, and for whom, in one or two sentences.
2. Include facts AI tools often get wrong. Locations, service areas, pricing basics, return policies.
3. Link to 10 to 30 pages, not 500. Your sitemap already lists everything. llms.txt is the curated shortlist.
4. Use absolute URLs and check every link returns a 200 status.
5. Keep it current. An outdated price or address in llms.txt is worse than no file.

If you'd rather not write it by hand, Nyrav's free llms.txt generator can build a file in this format for you to review and edit.

How to add llms.txt to WordPress

You have three options. Pick one, not several, or you may end up with conflicting files.

Option 1: Yoast SEO

According to Yoast's help page:

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Yoast SEO > Settings.
2. Open Site features.
3. Under AI tools, find llms.txt and switch the toggle on.
4. Optionally, choose manual page selection in the llms.txt settings to pick which pages appear.
5. Click Save changes and visit yoursite.com/llms.txt to check it.

Yoast notes the feature isn't available on multisite installs.

Option 2: Rank Math

According to Rank Math's knowledge base:

1. Go to Rank Math SEO > Dashboard and switch on the LLMS Txt module. Update the plugin if you don't see it.
2. Open Rank Math SEO > General Settings > Edit llms.txt.
3. Choose the post types and taxonomies to include, and set a limit (100 by default). Noindexed posts are excluded.
4. Add any extra lines or links in Additional Content, such as your summary and key facts.
5. Save, then preview the file at yoursite.com/llms.txt.

Option 3: Upload a file manually

1. Write your file (or generate one) and save it as llms.txt in UTF-8.
2. Upload it to your site's root folder, the same folder that contains wp-config.php, using your host's file manager or SFTP.
3. Visit yoursite.com/llms.txt to confirm it loads as plain text.

A manual file gives you full control over wording. If you use a plugin as well, turn its llms.txt feature off so the two don't clash.

How to add llms.txt to Shopify

Shopify now handles llms.txt natively. According to Shopify's developer changelog from May 2026, storefronts serve a default /agents.md, and /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt serve the same content by default. You can override each one with a theme template.

Step 1: Check your current file

Visit yourstore.com/llms.txt. You will most likely see an auto-generated summary based on your store details. For many stores that is enough. Make sure your store name and description in Shopify settings are accurate, since they feed the default file.

Step 2: Create a custom template (optional)

Following Shopify's llms.txt.liquid documentation:

1. In Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.
2. On your live theme, click ... then Edit code.
3. Right-click the Templates folder, choose New file, and name it exactly llms.txt.liquid (it cannot be a JSON template).
4. Paste your Markdown, like the example above, and save.
5. Visit yourstore.com/llms.txt to check the result.

Shopify limitations to know

• The template renders in a restricted context. Only the request and agents objects are available, so you can't loop through collections or products. Write your links by hand.
• The file is served on your primary domain only, with no per-market or per-language version.
• llms.txt.liquid only changes /llms.txt. To change /agents.md, /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt together, edit agents.md.liquid instead.
• If you previously served a custom llms.txt through an app, redirect or CDN worker, check that it still appears as you expect.

How to check your llms.txt is working

1. Open yoursite.com/llms.txt in a private browser window. It should load as plain text, not a 404 or an HTML page.
2. Click a few links to confirm they work.
3. If your version of Lighthouse includes the agentic browsing audits, run it to see the llms.txt check.
4. Look in your server logs or CDN analytics for AI user agents requesting the file, if you are curious.

Then move on. The question that matters is not whether a bot fetched your llms.txt but whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews name your business when customers ask. You can test that free with Nyrav's AI visibility check.