No llms.txt or llms-full.txt at the site root

Why it matters

llms.txt is a proposed Markdown file that gives agents brief background about a site and links to more detailed pages. Some site owners choose to publish one. The audit does not test whether any tool reads it.

What to do

1. Decide whether an llms.txt file is useful for your site. Nothing requires you to publish one.
2. If you publish one, serve it at /llms.txt on the site's HTTPS origin. The proposal requires an H1 project name; a summary and H2 sections of Markdown links are optional.
3. If you do not want the file, leave the site as it is.

When to leave it as it is: Leave it if you have no use for the file. A file can also live under a subpath such as /docs/llms.txt, which this check does not read.

What we read

Two requests on the site's own HTTPS origin: /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt. Requesting the second path is this audit's own choice; the llms.txt proposal does not require that file.

The note needs both files to answer an unconditional GET request with 404 or 410, directly and without a redirect, with a complete response and a clear challenge check. One request per file is enough; a 404 or 410 is not requested again to confirm it.

A direct, complete HTTP 200 for either file means a file is present, and the note is not shown, whatever the file contains. The format of the file is a separate check.

Example & evidence

Illustrative example: two root requests and a small file that follows the proposal; this is not a live audit or an AI adoption claim.

GET https://bakery.example/llms.txt
404 Not Found

GET https://bakery.example/llms-full.txt
404 Not Found

Both root files answered 404 directly, so the optional note is shown. If either request had been redirected, challenged or restricted, the result would be left unconfirmed instead.

# Example Bakery

> Recipes and opening hours for a neighbourhood bakery.

## Recipes

- [Bread recipe](https://bakery.example/recipes/bread.md): Ingredients and method

If you choose to publish a file, one like this served at /llms.txt with HTTP 200 means the note is no longer shown after the next full audit. Publishing it remains optional.

Confirm & check again

Check for yourself: Open /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt on the site's HTTPS origin in a browser, without signing in, and note the status each one returns.

Check again: Full audit — Run a new full audit after publishing a file. A direct, complete HTTP 200 for /llms.txt or /llms-full.txt shows that a file is present. Redirects, restricted or challenged responses, errors and partial responses leave the result unconfirmed; they neither show nor remove the note.

Limits & sources

Only the two root paths on the site's own HTTPS origin are requested. A file under a subpath, on another host or behind a redirect is not found by this check, so the note does not mean that no such file exists anywhere on the site.

A redirect from either root path, an unresolved challenge, HTTP 401/403/429/451, server errors, HEAD-only responses, timeouts, partial responses, a robots.txt rule that disallows the request, request limits and a cancelled audit all leave the result unconfirmed. None of them counts as absence.

The check does not read what a file contains. A file with format errors still counts as present; format errors are reported by a separate check.

llms.txt is a proposal, not a standard. The audit does not test whether any search engine or AI system reads the file and claims no ranking or visibility benefit from publishing it.

Confidence: High The note is bound to the two responses recorded during the audit. It describes those two root requests only, not the usefulness of the file.

Sources

• AnswerDotAI/llms-txt contributors, Original llms.txt proposal, fixed publisher commit — Proposes an llms.txt Markdown file that can be placed at the site root or at any path within it. It does not name /llms-full.txt; requesting that second root path is this audit's own choice. Checked 4 October 2026.
• llmstxt.org, The /llms.txt file, version 2 — The current proposal describes a small Markdown file linking to detailed resources, at the root or a subpath; this audit retains its documented root-only checks and pinned grammar. Checked 2 November 2026.

Editorial review: 2 November 2026