AI Readiness

llms.txt

A proposed Markdown file at a site's root that gives language models a curated map of its most important content.

OWNER — AI Systems

LAST REVIEWED — 2026-09-02 07:11 UTC

What it is

llms.txt is a proposed Markdown file at a site's root that gives language models a curated map of its most important content. Proposed in September 2024 by Jeremy Howard and the Answer.AI team, it addresses a narrow problem: HTML pages carry navigation, scripts and markup that waste a limited context window. The format is deliberately lean — a heading, a short description, and links to plain-text versions of key pages.

Why it matters

Adoption by the major AI vendors is still partial, and there is no published commitment from the large model providers to read the file, which is why this entry is flagged for review rather than recommended. It is worth tracking rather than dismissing: the underlying need — a machine-readable statement of what a site actually asserts — is real whether or not this particular file becomes the way it is met.