What is llms.txt, and does your store need one?
llms.txt is an emerging standard for telling AI agents what is on your site. Here is what it does, what goes in it, and whether it is worth adding.
You already know robots.txt: a file at your domain root that tells search crawlers where they can go. llms.txt is the same idea aimed at AI. It is a plain text file at yourstore.com/llms.txt that tells language-model agents what your site is, what matters on it, and what is shoppable.
It is new, and almost no stores have one yet. That is exactly why it is worth knowing about: it is a cheap way to be more readable than competitors who have not caught up.
What goes in it
There is no bloated spec to learn. A useful llms.txt for a store is short and human readable:
# Your Store
> Midweight merino and everyday basics, shipped from Portland.
## Shop
- [Sweaters](https://yourstore.com/collections/sweaters)
- [Shirts](https://yourstore.com/collections/shirts)
## Policies
- Free returns within 30 days
- Ships to US, CA, AU
## Contact
- support@yourstore.comThe goal is not to game anything. It is to hand an agent a clean summary instead of making it infer everything from your raw pages.
Does it actually help?
Adoption is early, so treat it as an edge, not a silver bullet. The signals that move the needle most are still on-page: Product schema, a readable price, and crawlable content. An llms.txt sits on top of those. It will not rescue a store an agent cannot read, but on a store that is already in decent shape it is a low-effort way to guide agents toward your best pages and your policies.
How to add one
Create a file named llms.txt, fill it with the structure above, and upload it to your site root so it is served at yourstore.com/llms.txt. On Shopify you can host it through your files or a small app or snippet. Then confirm it loads in a browser.
If you would rather not hand-write it, ShelfGrader generates one tailored to your store as part of a fix, alongside your Product schema and machine-readable pricing. You can also just grade your store free first to see whether llms.txt is even your weak point, or whether something more basic is costing you the sale.