{
  "dataset": "glossary",
  "record": {
    "id": "sitemap",
    "term": "XML Sitemap",
    "category": "optimization",
    "short_def": "A machine-readable file listing a site's URLs so crawlers and agents can discover every page without following links.",
    "long_def": "An XML sitemap enumerates a site's canonical URLs (optionally with last-modified dates and priorities) at /sitemap.xml, giving crawlers a complete, authoritative index instead of relying on link discovery. For agents, it is the fast path to the full surface area of a site — a discovery affordance alongside llms.txt and robots.txt.",
    "see_also": [
      "llms-txt",
      "robots-txt",
      "ai-crawler"
    ],
    "etymology_origin": {
      "value": null,
      "verify_status": "verify-against-primary-at-build",
      "source_hint": "https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html — Sitemaps protocol introduced by Google in 2005, now an open standard"
    },
    "related_to": [
      "llms-txt",
      "robots-txt",
      "ai-crawler",
      "content-negotiation"
    ],
    "contrast_with": "Unlike robots.txt, which states what may be crawled, a sitemap states what exists — the enumerated list of pages an agent can retrieve.",
    "example": "An agent that reads /sitemap.xml learns every page of a site in one request, instead of crawling link by link.",
    "source": "https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html",
    "status": "active",
    "why_it_matters": "The sitemap is a Discovery-dimension signal in the Agent-Readiness Audit; a complete, canonical sitemap is the lowest-cost way to make your whole surface discoverable to agents.",
    "sameAs": [
      "https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html"
    ],
    "bridge_entity": "llms-txt",
    "last_verified": "2026-07-06",
    "md_twin": "/glossary/sitemap.md"
  }
}