methodology / AI Readiness / #15
llms.txt presence
#15 · Variable · Web Quality · weighted · AI Readiness · weight 2.7% · impl implemented · method v1.2.0
Web Quality factor
This factor is part of Web Quality — the weighted 0..100 score that sits above Web Standards. Its weight depends on what kind of site is being measured. Web Standards items take priority; this factor only enters the score once Web Standards passes.
- Base weight
- 0.4 applied to every site type unless overridden below
- Why this weight
- llms.txt is an emerging norm with sub-1% adoption. High-value for content-rich and reference sites; aspirational elsewhere.
Per-site-type overrides
| Site type | Weight | Δ vs base |
|---|---|---|
| Blog | 0.3 | -0.1 |
| Corporate / B2B | 0.5 | +0.1 |
| News / Publisher | 1.0 | +0.6 |
| Personal site | 0.2 | -0.2 |
| Education | 0.8 | +0.4 |
| Government | 0.8 | +0.4 |
| SaaS / Product | 0.6 | +0.2 |
| Media / Streaming | 0.9 | +0.5 |
Site types not listed inherit the base weight.
What this means for your business
ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity look for a small text file at /llms.txt to understand what your business is and what to say about it. Without it, they guess, and the guess is often wrong.
Plain title: A summary file for AI assistants
What we measure
llms.txt is a new standard that tells AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity) how to understand your site. With it, AI answers about your business include accurate, structured information instead of guessing from raw HTML.
How to improve your score
Create `/llms.txt` as plain markdown describing your business, key pages, services, and contact info. Spec at llmstxt.org.
Implementation
stale · v1 · seeded — no connector publish yet · source: freshcoat-discovery/src/connectors/legacy-audit.ts:scoreLlmsTxt
Detection method
Reads has_llms_txt from the audit endpoint's GET <domain>/llms.txt probe. Present = pass; absent = warn (soft floor).
Detection sources
- Audit endpoint /llms.txt probe
Scoring bands · soft ladder
| Score | Condition |
|---|---|
| 100 | /llms.txt is present and returns 200 |
| 75 | /llms.txt is absent (sub-1% adoption — emerging norm, not a vulnerability) |
Evidence-key dictionary
What every notes string the connector emits means.
Surfaces in the per-domain dossier evidence column.
llms_txt_present- /llms.txt returns 200.
no_llms_txt- /llms.txt is missing.
Applicability
Variable tier. Adoption sits below 1% of the open web in 2026 — absence is best-practice-not-yet-adopted, not a quality defect. Higher weight on news/media (1.0) than personal sites (0.2).
Changelog
- 2026-04-29 · seed Initial seed from MethodologyRegistry bootstrap.
Facts
When this applies
This platform doesn't let site owners publish arbitrary root-path files like /llms.txt.
- Marked n/a when the detected platform doesn't support canControlRobotsTxt (e.g., Squarespace and Wix can't set custom HTTP headers, so factor #4 becomes n/a there).
Scoring
Scoring formulas are versioned with the methodology. The current method (v1.2.0) maps raw measurements to pass, warn, fail. Factor weights determine how much each contributes to the composite — see the methodology index for the full table.
Cited by these standards
Standards in the Standards Library whose satisfiedBy requirement tree references this factor. Each link goes to the standard's full entry — methodology, scope, and the other factors it relies on.
Version history
| Version | Change | Date |
|---|---|---|
| v1.2.0 | Factor introduced. Status: live. Scoring impl: implemented. | 2026-04-25 |