llms.txt

The llms.txt proposal, published by Jeremy Howard at llmstxt.org in September 2024, suggests that a site put a Markdown file at its root that says what the site is and links to its most useful pages, so a language model with a limited context window can find the right material quickly. The format is simple: an H1 with the site name, a blockquote summary, then sections of links with one-line descriptions, and an optional section a model may skip. A companion llms-full.txt can carry the full text of those pages. No major engine has said it uses the file for ranking or retrieval, so treat it as a courtesy rather than a lever. It costs nothing, it forces you to decide which pages matter, and it is the kind of small signal that is easy to have in place if engines start reading it. Shopify now supports llms.txt.liquid as a theme template served at /llms.txt on the primary domain, which removes the old hosting problem. Citelift's free generator writes the file from a store's own pages, and this site publishes its own.