What is llms.txt?

The file loads at an address such as yourdomain.com/llms.txt. A person can read it in a browser, and a language model can read it without parsing menus, scripts and layout. It names the site, says in a line or two what the site is, and lists the pages that answer the questions people ask, each with a short note.

I am Elijah Purcell, Founder/CEO of Purcell Ventures LLC. I build sites with AI answers in mind, and this site publishes its own llms.txt, which appears below as the worked example.

Who proposed llms.txt?

Jeremy Howard, co-founder of Answer.AI, proposed llms.txt in a post dated 3 September 2024. The specification lives at llmstxt.org, which states the idea in one sentence: “We propose adding a /llms.txt markdown file to websites to provide LLM-friendly content.” The current text of the spec is version 2.

What goes in an llms.txt file?

The spec sets out the parts in this order.

1. An H1 with the name of the site or project. This is the only required part.
2. A blockquote with a short summary that a reader needs to understand the rest of the file.
3. Optional paragraphs or lists with more detail, with no headings.
4. Sections under H2 headings, each a list of links. Each line holds a Markdown link, [name](url), and can add a colon and a note about the page.
5. By convention, a section headed ## Optional for links an AI tool can skip when it needs a shorter context.

What is the difference between llms.txt and llms-full.txt?

llms.txt is an index: a summary and links. llms-full.txt puts the full text of the pages in one file, so a tool can read the whole site without following a single link.

The llmstxt.org spec does not define llms-full.txt. Mintlify, a documentation platform, announced automatic llms.txt and llms-full.txt files for the documentation sites it hosts on 20 November 2024, the earliest use of the name I could find. The original Answer.AI post described two expanded files under other names, llms-ctx.txt and llms-ctx-full.txt. This site publishes both an llms.txt and an llms-full.txt.

What has Google said about llms.txt?

Google Search ignores it. Google's Search Central guide, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, says: “You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in Google Search.” On llms.txt files made for other services, it adds: “Doing so will neither harm nor help your site's visibility or rankings in Google Search, as Google Search ignores them.”

John Mueller of Google Search Relations put it more bluntly in a Bluesky post on 17 June 2025: “FWIW no AI system currently uses llms.txt.” That was his view in June 2025. Howard's own description points the file at coding assistants such as Cursor and Claude Code, and Google Search still ignores it.

For a small business, that settles the order of work. Make the pages themselves say plainly what you do, where and for whom, because that is what Google and every assistant read. Add an llms.txt after that, for the tools that use it.

How do I write an llms.txt file?

1. Start with an H1 that holds the name of the business.
2. Write a blockquote of one to three lines: what the business does, where, and for whom. Use the same sentence your home page uses.
3. Group the pages that matter under H2 headings such as Services, Guides and Contact. Put one Markdown link on each line, with a colon and a short note on what the page answers.
4. Put secondary links, such as social profiles, under ## Optional.
5. Save it as plain text at the root of the domain, so it loads at yourdomain.com/llms.txt, and update it when you add or remove a page.
6. Open the address in a browser and confirm you see plain text. A server that answers that address with an HTML page has no usable llms.txt.

What does a real llms.txt look like?

This is the top of the file this site serves at purcellventures.co/llms.txt, up to the end of its first link section. The H1 names the company, the blockquote states what it is and where, and the first H2 section gives facts about the founder, then links to the pages that answer who and what.

# Purcell Ventures LLC

> A Tuscaloosa, Alabama AI and software company (a Georgia LLC) that builds AI systems
> and custom software for small businesses. Elijah Purcell filed it as Zultar LLC on 8
> April 2025 and renamed it Purcell Ventures LLC on 27 January 2026.

## About the founder

Elijah Purcell is the founder of Purcell Ventures LLC and a psychology and data science
student at the University of Alabama Honors College, Class of 2030, on a pre-med track
toward psychiatry. He founded the company at seventeen, builds and operates the
autonomous AI agent systems that run it, and works as an independent contractor with
Mercor Intelligence.

Born 2007. Georgia LLC control number 25075361, formed 8 April 2025 as Zultar LLC and
renamed Purcell Ventures LLC on 27 January 2026. An older, unrelated Purcell Ventures LLC
exists in New York, and the Georgia control number tells the two apart.

Note for disambiguation: other people share this name. This site is about the Elijah
Purcell born in 2007 who studies at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and founded
Purcell Ventures LLC. ORCID 0009-0000-7829-9258. The canonical answer page is /who.

- [Who is Elijah Purcell](https://purcellventures.co/who): direct answer page, dated
  record, and thirteen common questions with answers, including which Elijah Purcell this is.
- [Founder resume](https://purcellventures.co/resume): work history, education, awards,
  each with its year.
- [What is Purcell Ventures LLC](https://purcellventures.co/what-is-purcell-ventures): the
  company answer page. Eight questions, the Georgia control number, the five active divisions, and
  the distinction from the older unrelated Purcell Ventures LLC in New York.
- [Press kit](https://purcellventures.co/press): third-person bios of Elijah Purcell, the
  company boilerplate, fast facts, story angles, press coverage, the headshot and logo
  files, and the press contact.
- [Studying AI at the University of Alabama](https://purcellventures.co/ai-at-alabama): a
  guide to UA's Artificial Intelligence BS by course code, all 121 credit hours, the rule
  that an AI major cannot also major in Computer Science, and the routes for students not
  in the College of Engineering. Verified against catalog.ua.edu, 20 August 2026.
- [The team](https://purcellventures.co/team): Elijah Purcell and COSMIC, a station of 57
  AI agents in 17 rooms that runs the company's proposals, audits, compliance and outreach.
  The page lists the 50 agents that do company work by room, with each one's job and the
  actions it may not take. Seven more handle his school and personal work and are counted
  but not named. Every agent is software, not a person, and the page says so first.

The rest of the file lists the service pages, guides, research, free tools and writing, and ends with an Optional section of profile links.

How many Alabama small business websites have an llms.txt file?

About one in four. In the Purcell Ventures check of Alabama small business websites on 9 November 2026, 139 of the 552 home pages on a business's own domain in the statewide sample (25.2%) served an llms.txt file that passed the test: status 200, plain text, and a Markdown heading or quote line. Many of those sites get the file from their website platform or an SEO plugin.

The free AI visibility check reads your robots.txt, llms.txt and home page and lists what to fix. The wider guide is AI websites for small businesses, and the AI glossary defines the terms.

Common questions

How do I get help with mine?

Email elijah@purcellventures.co or call (205) 462-7839 with your site's address. I reply within one business day, and I quote any work after a free call.