| Piece | Rule |
|---|---|
| Encoding | UTF-8. An optional byte-order mark may come first. |
| H1 | Exactly one, the project or site name. Only required section. |
| Blockquote | Short summary immediately after the title. Strongly expected. |
| Free markdown | Paragraphs and lists allowed. No headings in this stretch. |
| H2 sections | Each is a named file list. Items are markdown links, optionally “: notes”. |
| Optional | Section titled exactly Optional. Agents may skip it for a shorter context. |
| Headings | H1 and H2 only. No H3–H6. |
| Scope | A file covers URLs under its path. Prefer the most specific file. |
Minimal example
# Northwind Docs > API and guides for the Northwind billing service. Use the Docs section first. Pricing is public. Status is informational. ## Docs - [Quickstart](https://docs.example.com/quickstart): Create a key and send a test charge. - [API reference](https://docs.example.com/api): Endpoint list and error codes. ## Optional - [Status](https://status.example.com/): Incidents. Skip if you only need the API.
Discovery hints
Version notes on llmstxt.org describe two HTML hints: rel="describedby" pointing at the relevant llms.txt, and rel="alternate" type="text/markdown" pointing at a page’s markdown twin.
Other proposals (including business-identity specs that require a Contact section) are separate documents. This generator follows the llmstxt.org convention.