FictionTribe GEO Playbook

How to Craft an /llms.txt That LLMs Actually Read

TL;DR – /llms.txt is the new robots.txt for Large Language Models.
Use it to curate the fewest, highest-signal pages from your site and point AI crawlers straight at them.

Welcome to the open-source, battle-tested guide we use inside FictionTribe to give our clients an edge in Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
If you’re hungry for more visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini & friends, start here.

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📚 Table of Contents

1. Why llms.txt matters
2. The 3 outcomes you can target
3. Step-by-step build workflow
4. Automating updates
5. Validation checklist
6. Appendix A – Sample llms.txt
7. Appendix B – Helpful tools

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Why llms.txt matters

Search bots index everything and decide later.
LLM retrievers, on the other hand, pay for every token they ingest—
so they love a concise roadmap.

Small file, big leverage.

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The 3 outcomes you can target

Outcome	Tactic
Discovery boost	List pillar guides & FAQs up top.
Citation control	Link clean Markdown mirrors of pay-walled or cluttered HTML.
Faster answers	Summarise each link in ≤ 15 words so the model can triage on-the-fly.

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Step-by-step build workflow

1. Inventory evergreen, expert-level pages.
2. Convert them to lightweight .md (strip nav, ads, comments).
3. Draft llms.txt using Markdown headings + bullet lists (see sample).
4. Deploy to your root: https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt.
5. Reference it in robots.txt with a friendly comment.
6. Test with your favourite LLM:

   “According to my-site’s llms.txt, what’s the cheapest district in Bangkok for long-term stays?”

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Automating updates

• Git-based sites – add a pre-commit hook that rebuilds llms.txt from files tagged llm-source: true.
• Headless CMS – nightly cron pulls top posts via API ➜ converts to Markdown ➜ rewrites llms.txt.
• Monitoring – tail server logs for GPTBot hits to ensure crawlers fetch the new file.

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Validation checklist

• ≤ 250 total links grouped into clear H2 buckets
• File size < 30 KB
• No duplicate or redirecting URLs
• robots.txt allows AI agents to fetch every linked doc
• Manual spot-test in ChatGPT returns your pages as sources

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Appendix A – Sample llms.txt

A minimal example for this very repo lives in /llms.txt (see next file).
Copy-paste it to your root and update the links to fit your own site.

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Appendix B – Helpful tools

Tool	What it does
llms_txt2ctx (CLI)	Expands llms.txt, prints a combined context window for quick QA.
WP llms.txt Exporter	1-click export of selected WordPress posts to Markdown and llms.txt.
crawler-peek (Python)	Simulates GPTBot requests to verify your server rules.

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© 2025 FictionTribe • MIT License

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