---
title: "llms.txt explained for business leaders | Am I Ready for Agents?"
description: "llms.txt explained in plain language: what the file is, what it does not do, what Ora's experiment found and four questions to decide whether to publish one."
canonical: https://amireadyforagents.com/briefings/llms-txt-version-2-explained
site: "Am I Ready for Agents?"
last_updated: 2026-11-04
section: "Guides"
---

# llms.txt explained for business leaders | Am I Ready for Agents?

> llms.txt explained in plain language: what the file is, what it does not do, what Ora's experiment found and four questions to decide whether to publish one.

Source: https://amireadyforagents.com/briefings/llms-txt-version-2-explained
Site: Am I Ready for Agents?
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04

# llms.txt explained for business leaders: do you need one?

## In short

llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file at the root of a site that points AI tools to its most useful pages. It is optional and it does not control crawling. In Ora's experiment it did not change whether an agent got the answer, and 86 percent of fetches arrived by a link. Yes or not yet both count.

## What it is and what it is not

A short file, written in markdown, placed at the root of a website, for example at /llms.txt. It describes the site and lists the pages that matter most, with a line on each. It is written for language models and the agents that use them.

-   It is a proposal, not a standard issued by a standards body.
-   It does not control crawling. That is the job of robots.txt and your bot rules.
-   It does not grant or refuse permission to train on your content.
-   It does not replace readable pages. Agents still need prices, policies and products as text on the pages.

## What the evidence says

-   4 Nov 2026
    
    In the network's own crawl, run of 4 Nov 2026 (13,071 of 13,071 domains from Tranco list 746WX plus Ora leaderboard domains), 24.6 percent of 10,565 sites served an llms.txt file.
    
    [Scorecard methodology: the crawl of 4 Nov 2026](https://amireadyforagents.com/scorecards/methodology), read 4 Nov 2026
    
-   19 Oct 2026
    
    Ora's 19-configuration experiment found llms.txt, JSON-LD, sitemaps and markdown mirrors did not change whether an agent retrieved the answer; only JavaScript-hidden answers and 403 blocks did.
    
    Vendor claim. [Introducing AgentReady.org (19 Oct 2026)](https://ora.ai/blog/agentready-launch?utm_source=amireadyforagents.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=briefing), read 4 Nov 2026
    
-   19 Oct 2026
    
    Ora's lab found that 86 percent of fetches of llms.txt arrived through a link from a page the agent had already read (AgentReady guide, October 2026).
    
    Vendor claim. [AgentReady.org guide](https://agentready.org/?utm_source=amireadyforagents.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=briefing), read 4 Nov 2026
    

## Four questions to decide

1.  Do we know which ten or twenty pages matter most to an agent acting for a customer?
2.  Who would write the descriptions, and who keeps them current when pages change?
3.  Do we want markdown versions of key pages?
4.  Does publishing it match our position on AI use of our content?

If the answers are clear, publish a short file, link it from the footer of every page and review it with your sitemap. If they are not, not yet is a reasonable decision. The self-check counts a deliberate not yet the same as yes: [question 4](https://amireadyforagents.com/self-check#q4) asks only whether you have decided.

## Related

-   [The self-check](https://amireadyforagents.com/self-check)Eighteen questions scored in your browser.
-   [Which AI bots to let in](https://amireadyforagents.com/decisions/which-bots-to-allow)The robots.txt decision llms.txt does not replace.

## Sources

1.  [Scorecard methodology: the crawl of 4 Nov 2026](https://amireadyforagents.com/scorecards/methodology) (amireadyforagents.com/scorecards/methodology), read 4 Nov 2026.
2.  [Introducing AgentReady.org (19 Oct 2026)](https://ora.ai/blog/agentready-launch?utm_source=amireadyforagents.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=briefing) (ora.ai/blog/agentready-launch), read 4 Nov 2026. Vendor claim.
3.  [AgentReady.org guide](https://agentready.org/?utm_source=amireadyforagents.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=briefing) (agentready.org), read 4 Nov 2026. Vendor claim.
4.  [Sector scorecards dataset, edition 4 Nov 2026](https://amireadyforagents.com/scorecards) (amireadyforagents.com/scorecards), read 4 Nov 2026.

Last reviewed 4 November 2026

Reviewed 4 November 2026. [4 sources](#sources), each with the day it was read.