llms.txt

llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file you place at the root of your domain (yoursite.com/llms.txt) to give large language models a clean, curated guide to your most important content, in readable Markdown rather than cluttered HTML. Think of it as a sitemap written for AI: a concise index of what your site offers and links to the pages you most want models to read.

For a founder it matters as a low-cost bet on an emerging standard. The promise is that, instead of crawling messy pages full of navigation and scripts, an AI tool reads a tidy summary you control, improving the odds it understands and cites you accurately. Adoption is still early and not every model honours it yet, so treat it as cheap insurance, not a guaranteed lever. It pairs naturally with the rest of your AEO work: clear content, strong entity signals and structured data. Ship it once, keep it current, and you've made your site easier for the next wave of AI tools to read.