llms.txt: what it does, what it does not, and what to do first
A new file in the root of your site is the kind of fix that feels like progress. Here is what is known about this one, and why we publish it anyway.
llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file that lists a site's key pages for AI systems. In June 2025 Google's John Mueller wrote that no AI system currently uses it, and we have seen no independent evidence that it changes citations. Publish one if it takes an hour, and spend the week on pages, sources and crawl access.
What it is
llms.txt is a proposal for a Markdown file at the root of a website, listing the pages a language model should read first, each with a one-line description. Think of it as a curated table of contents. A longer variant, llms-full.txt, puts the text of those pages in one file. Neither is a standard that any search engine or AI company has committed to follow.
What Google has said
On 17 June 2025, John Mueller of Google wrote on Bluesky: “FWIW no AI system currently uses llms.txt.” Search Engine Roundtable reported it when the file was being added to popular plugins. Some write-ups since then say AI crawlers have or have not requested the file; we have not found a primary source that settles it either way, and several of those claims come from vendors with something to sell.
What we do, and why
We publish both files at colleviate.com/llms.txt and llms-full.txt, generated from the same content as the site so they cannot drift. We do not claim they raise our citations, because we do not know that they do. The case for them is that they cost an hour once and nothing after, and that a clean, plain-text index of your best pages is useful to anyone building on your content, human or machine.
What to do first instead
- Make sure the pages can be read. Plain HTML text, a sensible title and one clear answer near the top, as in the technical SEO checklist.
- Check crawler access. The bot rules in robots.txt, your CDN and your firewall, as in why AI answers do not mention your brand.
- Publish something worth citing. A named source, a number someone can check, original data. How AI answer engines choose sources sets out why.
- Then add the file, and look in your server logs, if your host gives you them, for requests to /llms.txt. If nothing asks for it, you have your answer.
Sources
- Google says no AI system currently uses llms.txt, Search Engine Roundtable, June 2025
Questions we get asked
Does llms.txt improve AI citations?
We have found no independent evidence that it does. In June 2025 Google's John Mueller wrote that no AI system currently uses it. It is cheap to publish, so it is a low-risk extra, not a strategy.
What is the difference between llms.txt and llms-full.txt?
llms.txt is a short list of key pages with descriptions. llms-full.txt carries the full text of those pages in a single file. Both are proposals, not standards.
Should I publish llms.txt?
If it takes an hour and stays in step with your site, yes. Do the work that has evidence behind it first: readable pages, open crawler access and citable facts.
Fix what is proven first
We audit readability, crawler access and citable content before anything experimental, and say which of our recommendations have evidence behind them and which do not.
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