A clear purpose
One paragraph in plain English: who you are, who you serve, what kind of information lives here. Models read this first.
llms.txt tracker
— of — state & territory websites publish an llms.txt.
Publishing llms.txt
Not yet
Adoption over time
Recommendation
Why a state should publish an llms.txt.
People are already asking AI assistants for help with benefits, taxes, voting, and licenses.
An llms.txt is a short, plain-language file that tells those models what your site is,
which pages are authoritative, and how to be careful with time-sensitive information.
Meet residents where they are.
Authoritative URLs
Point AI to your canonical pages and section sitemaps so it cites the real source, not a stale scrape or someone’s third-party mirror.
Usage guidance
Tell models what to do with emergency alerts, eligibility rules, and legal notices. Maryland’s file is a good template: it explicitly excludes time-sensitive alerts.
A way to reach you
An email or form for AI builders to flag issues, request fixes, or coordinate. A two-line contact section turns black-box scraping into a feedback loop.