--- title: "What does llms.txt do for ecommerce, next to Markdown and JSON-LD?" description: "llms.txt for ecommerce explained: Google says AI Overviews ignore it, who does read it, and why JSON-LD product data comes first for shopping agents." canonical: https://autobasket.store/learn/llms-txt-markdown-mirrors-schema --- 1. [Home](https://autobasket.store/) 2. [Guides](https://autobasket.store/learn) 3. What does llms.txt do for ecommerce, next to Markdown and JSON-LD? # What does llms.txt do for ecommerce, next to Markdown and JSON-LD? An llms.txt file lists a site's pages for AI systems, a Markdown mirror gives them clean page text, and JSON-LD states product, price and stock as fields. Google said in July 2026 that Search ignores llms.txt and needs no special files for AI Overviews. For a shop, JSON-LD comes first, because agents compare offers on fields. Guide, Discover, published 12 October 2026, updated 16 October 2026 ## What is llms.txt? `llms.txt` is a Markdown file at the root of a site that lists the pages an AI system should read, with one line on each. Jeremy Howard proposed it on 3 September 2024 at [llmstxt.org](https://llmstxt.org/). The only required part is an H1 with the site name, followed by an optional summary and lists of links. A shop’s file can be this short, shown here for an invented bike shop: ``` # Velo Atelier > Bike shop in Lausanne. Road, gravel and e-bikes, delivered across Switzerland. ## Policies - [Delivery](https://example.ch/delivery.md): carriers, costs and delivery times in Switzerland - [Returns](https://example.ch/returns.md): 30-day returns, conditions and refunds ## Buying guides - [Gravel bike sizes](https://example.ch/guides/gravel-sizes.md): frame size by rider height ``` Ours is at [/llms.txt](https://autobasket.store/llms.txt), with the full text in [/llms-full.txt](https://autobasket.store/llms-full.txt). `llms-full.txt` is a community convention and not part of the proposal. ## Does Google use llms.txt? No. Google’s guide to generative AI in Search, updated on 10 July 2026, says you do not need machine-readable files, AI text files or Markdown to appear in Search, that it is “completely fine” to keep an llms.txt file, and that Search ignores it ([Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide)). Google’s page on AI features says the same for AI Overviews and AI Mode: “There are no additional requirements”, and a page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet ([Google Search Central, updated 10 December 2025](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)). So llms.txt does nothing for Google rankings, and a shop should never buy it as a Google tactic. The [GEO vs SEO guide](https://autobasket.store/learn/geo-vs-seo-for-online-shops) covers what does count for Google’s AI answers. ## Who does read llms.txt? Tools and agents that fetch it on purpose. Chrome’s Lighthouse checks the file in its agentic browsing audits, and flags it only when the server returns an error; a missing file is marked not applicable ([Chrome for Developers, 5 May 2026](https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/agentic-browsing/llms-txt)). Beyond that, an agent browsing on a user’s behalf can use the file as a table of contents if it chooses to request it. We have seen no assistant vendor document that its crawler reads it, and no published study measuring its effect on citations. That is why we treat it as cheap and optional: it costs an hour, keeps an inventory of what the site publishes, and helps the agents that look. ## What is the difference between llms.txt and robots.txt? `robots.txt` tells crawlers what they may fetch. `llms.txt` suggests what is worth reading. Only the first one controls access, and it is the one that decides whether a shopping assistant sees the shop at all. | | robots.txt | llms.txt | JSON-LD | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | What it says | Which crawlers may fetch which paths | Which pages matter, with a line on each | What the product is, its price, stock, delivery and returns | | Who reads it | Every well-behaved crawler, including GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot | Agents and tools that request it | Google, Bing, Merchant Center and AI crawlers | | Effect if missing | Everything is allowed | None for Google | The offer can drop out of agent comparisons | | Priority for a shop | Check first | Optional, last | First | A crawler blocked in `robots.txt` cannot fetch the product pages, whatever llms.txt lists, so check those rules before anything else. ## Which product schema fields do agents read? JSON-LD in a `