Definition
llms.txt is a simple Markdown file at a domain's root (e.g. agentsie.at/llms.txt) that gives language models a curated map of the most important content: who the brand is, what services, cases, articles and definitions exist - each with a link and short description.
Its purpose isn't indexing like sitemap.xml, but human- and machine-readable condensation. The file is deliberately Markdown, tailored to language models rather than crawler XML.
Important context: despite its popularity in the SEO community, there is so far no solid evidence that llms.txt increases citation frequency in ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews - Google representatives (incl. John Mueller) currently call it ineffective for citations. Worth having as a cheap, harmless extra, not a priority.
Why it matters
llms.txt is cheap to ship and carries no downside - but it's not a ranking or citation lever. For AI visibility, invest in citable content, schema markup and brand mentions rather than this file.
In practice
- 01agentsie.at/llms.txt lists services, cases, blog and glossary as annotated links - a clean overview, nothing more.
- 02Unlike sitemap.xml (crawler XML for indexing), llms.txt is human-readable Markdown.
- 03Studies across hundreds of thousands of domains (incl. SE Ranking) find no measurable citation effect from llms.txt so far.
