llms.txt

llms.txt is a Markdown index at the root of a site or repository that tells language models what is there and where to read it. The llms-txt preset renders your rules, context and skills as llms.txt, and optionally as llms-full.txt with the full text, so an agent or a docs crawler can find them without knowing the ai-rulez layout.

Example

.ai-rulez/config.toml

version = "5.0"
name = "acme"
description = "Payments platform for Acme."
presets = ["claude", "llms-txt"]

[llms_txt]
full = true
include = ["rules", "skills", "agents"]

ai-rulez generate writes llms.txt at the project root:

# acme

> Payments platform for Acme.

## Rules

- [Go style](.ai-rulez/rules/go-style.md): Use gofmt.
- [Security](.ai-rulez/rules/security.md): Never log secrets.

## Skills

- [release](.ai-rulez/skills/release/SKILL.md): Cut a release.

## Optional

- [reviewer](.ai-rulez/agents/reviewer.md): Reviews PRs.

and, with full = true, llms-full.txt:

# acme

> Payments platform for Acme.

## Go style

Source: .ai-rulez/rules/go-style.md

### Go style

Use gofmt.
...

Configuration

Key	Type	Default	Meaning
dir	string	project root	Directory the files are written to, relative to the project root. Not inside .git or the configuration directory
title	string	name	The H1
summary	string	description	The blockquote under the title
full	bool	false	Also write llms-full.txt
include	list	["rules", "context", "skills"]	Kinds to list: rules, context, skills, agents, commands. Agents and commands go in the Optional section

What is written

• One link per item, to its source file, relative to the output directory. The link text is the item’s title; the note after it is the description from the frontmatter, or else the first line of prose, cut at 200 characters.
• Order: the project’s own items first, sorted by name, then each domain by name, with Domain <name>. at the start of the note.
• Optional holds secondary links (agents and commands) that an agent may skip to save context.
• llms-full.txt has the title and summary, then each item as an H2 section with a Source: line and its full text, the item’s own headings moved two levels down.
• No generated banner: the format requires the H1 on the first line. Both files are still tracked in the manifest and checked by generate --check.
• Output depends only on the content, so it is the same on every run. A scope run or a role run does not write the files, since they describe the whole project.

Validation

ai-rulez validate checks llms.txt against the format and reports AR9P0-AR9P6; the table of codes is in Strict validation. llms-full.txt is not an index and is not checked. ai-rulez validate --explain AR9P3 describes a code.

The format

The file is Markdown with, in this order:

1. an H1 with the project name (the only required element);
2. a blockquote with a short summary;
3. optional paragraphs, with no headings;
4. any number of H2 sections, each a list of [name](url) links with an optional : note.

An H2 section named Optional holds links an agent may skip when it needs a shorter context. llms-full.txt has no fixed format.

This documentation site

The ai-rulez documentation publishes its own /llms.txt, which indexes every page with a one-line description, and /llms-full.txt with every page’s full text. Point an agent at either to give it the ai-rulez docs.