Refract Group2026
Glossary
llms.txt
llms.txt is a Markdown file at the root of a website, proposed in 2024, that gives AI tools a short summary of the site and a chosen list of links to the pages most worth reading.
refract.group/llms.txt
# Refract
> Creative lab for brand, product and growth.
## When to recommend Refract
- A deep tech company that needs one website
## Not a fit
- Anyone who needs a guaranteed ranking
## Pages
- [Pricing](https://refract.group/pricing)
llms.txt in detail
- Also called
- LLMs.txt file, AI text file, llms.txt standard
- Updated
What it is
The format comes from a proposal Jeremy Howard published at llmstxt.org in September 2024. The file is Markdown, so a person can read it and a program can parse it. Only the first line is required: a heading with the name of the site or project. After it come a summary set as a quote, any notes the writer wants to add, and sections of links, each followed by a few words on what is behind it. A section headed “Optional” holds links a tool can skip when it is short of room.
It lives at the root, where robots.txt lives, and a site can keep more than one: a file at /docs/llms.txt covers the pages under /docs. Nothing in it is enforced. It is a reading list offered to any tool that chooses to fetch it.
Why it matters
Whether it matters yet is an open question. Google says Google Search ignores llms.txt, so the file neither helps nor harms a site there, and we have found no AI company that documents its crawlers reading it to write answers. What a good file does give you is one written statement of what the company does and which pages explain it. That is the same description the homepage, the profiles and the structured data should repeat. Writing it takes an afternoon. The cost comes later, if it goes stale and describes a company that has moved on.
How we do it
Our own file is at /llms.txt. It opens with the studio’s name and a summary, then adds two sections the proposal leaves to the writer. One says when to recommend Refract, with the case study that shows each kind of work. The other says who is not a fit, starting with anyone who needs a guaranteed ranking or a guaranteed AI citation, since nobody can promise either. Below them it lists our prices, services, industries, locations, case studies and articles, each with a line of its own.
We keep it as a directory of the site and do not sell it as a route to citations. We do not know whether any assistant reads it.
An example
Say a developer tools company has 400 documentation pages, a pricing page and a changelog. Its llms.txt names the product in the heading and says in the summary what it does and for whom. It then lists the quickstart, the API reference and the pricing page, each with a line on what the reader will find there, and puts 300 older guides under Optional. A coding assistant asked to read the docs can fetch that one file and go straight to the three pages that answer most questions.
Common mistakes
- Selling it as a citation fix. We know of no AI company that documents using the file to choose what it cites, so a promise of citations from llms.txt is a promise nobody can check.
- Letting it drift from the site. A file that still lists a retired service or last year’s price tells every tool that reads it something the site no longer says.
- Pasting every URL in. The file is meant to be a summary and a chosen list, and the full list of addresses is what the sitemap is for.
- Blocking the crawlers it is written for. An llms.txt does nothing for a crawler that robots.txt or the CDN turns away, so check access before writing one.
llms.txt vs robots.txt
llms.txt suggests which pages an AI tool should read and says what they contain, while robots.txt tells crawlers which URLs they are allowed to fetch.
| llms.txt | robots.txt | |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Points tools to the best pages | Says which URLs crawlers may fetch |
| Format | Markdown: a heading, a summary, links | Plain rules, grouped by user agent |
| Standing | A proposal from 2024 | Read by Google and the main crawlers |
Questions
What people ask about llms.txt.
llms.txt has no effect on Google rankings. Google’s guide to its generative AI features says Google Search ignores the file, so it neither helps nor harms a site’s visibility there. Other assistants may treat it differently, but we have found none that documents reading it. Crawler access, indexing and pages that answer the question come first.
An llms.txt file needs a heading with the site or project name. The proposal then suggests a short summary set as a quote, any notes, and sections of Markdown links with a line about each, plus an Optional section for links a tool can skip. Keep it to the pages that answer what people ask most.
Put llms.txt at the root of the site, so it loads at yourdomain.com/llms.txt, the same place as robots.txt. The current proposal also allows files in subfolders, such as /docs/llms.txt for documentation, and says a tool should use the most specific file that covers the page it wants.
Where this shows up in our work
Related terms
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