# llms.txt

> A markdown file at a domain's root that gives language models a curated index of the site's most important content.

_The Agentic Web Lexicon · /glossary/llms-txt · [JSON](/api/glossary/llms-txt) · [all The Agentic Web Lexicon](/glossary)_

- **term:** llms.txt
- **category:** protocols
- **short_def:** A markdown file at a domain's root that gives language models a curated index of the site's most important content.
- **long_def:** Proposed by Jeremy Howard (Answer.AI) on 3 September 2024. It mirrors robots.txt in spirit but is written for ingestion rather than exclusion: a concise, linkable map that helps agents find and prioritize content. A companion llms-full.txt inlines the full content.
- **see_also:** markdown-twin, agentic-web
- **etymology_origin:** Proposed by Jeremy Howard, co-founder of Answer.AI, on 3 September 2024; specification maintained at llmstxt.org.
- **related_to:** markdown-twin, robots-txt, agentic-web, content-negotiation
- **contrast_with:** Unlike robots.txt, which tells crawlers what NOT to fetch (exclusion), llms.txt tells models what to read first (curation for ingestion).
- **example:** After Mintlify rolled out llms.txt support across its hosted docs in November 2024, thousands of docs sites — including Anthropic and Cursor — adopted the file.
- **source:** https://www.answer.ai/posts/2024-09-03-llmstxt.html
- **status:** proposed
- **why_it_matters:** llms.txt is one of the lowest-effort, highest-signal agent-readiness steps: a single root file that curates what models ingest from your site.
- **sameAs:** https://llmstxt.org/
- **bridge_entity:** protocols/discovery/llms-txt
- **last_verified:** 2026-06-15
- **md_twin:** /glossary/llms-txt.md