# What are llms.txt and llms-full.txt?

**Concept**

**TL;DR:** `llms.txt` is a markdown file at your site's root that gives AI assistants a clean, curated map of your most important content. `llms-full.txt` is a longer companion with page-by-page detail. Together they help AI models understand and represent your site accurately.

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## What it is

Where `robots.txt` tells crawlers *where they may go*, and a sitemap lists *every* URL for search engines, `llms.txt` is different: it's a short, human-readable guidebook written *for AI assistants*. It highlights what your site is about and links to the pages that matter most, in plain markdown.

It's an emerging convention (see llmstxt.org), not yet a universal standard — but a small, low-cost investment as AI-driven traffic grows. `llms-full.txt` backs it up with fuller, per-page context for models that want more depth.

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## Why it matters

- **Accuracy.** A curated map reduces the chance an AI assistant misrepresents your content or cites the wrong page.
- **Discoverability for AI.** It points models straight at your best content instead of leaving them to guess from raw HTML.
- **Freshness counts.** A stale `llms.txt` is worse than none — it sends models to content that moved or changed. Keeping it current is the whole game.

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## How MetaPilot handles it

MetaPilot pre-fills `llms.txt` and `llms-full.txt` from your sitemap data, lets you edit them, and serves them at the edge. Turn on auto-refresh and it rebuilds them whenever your content changes — so assistants never read a stale map.

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## FAQ

**Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?**
No. `robots.txt` sets access rules for crawlers; `llms.txt` is a curated content map written for AI assistants.

**Is llms.txt an official standard?**
It's an emerging convention (llmstxt.org), increasingly recognized but not universally adopted — cheap to provide now.

**What's the difference between llms.txt and llms-full.txt?**
`llms.txt` is the concise map; `llms-full.txt` adds richer page-by-page detail.

**Do I have to keep it updated?**
Yes — a stale map misleads models. MetaPilot can auto-refresh it for you.

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## Related

- What is robots.txt?
- What is a sitemap?
- What is an LLM (and an answer engine)?
- What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?