A SkillAEO Skills Pack contains drafts for llms.txt and agent.json. llms.txt is an optional community proposal. agent.json is SkillAEO's experimental format, not an industry standard. Neither file guarantees discovery, indexing, citations, recommendations, rankings, or traffic.
Treat generated files as public content that requires human review, not as ready-to-publish authority.
Before you generate
Confirm that the site has current public pages for:
- product or service description;
- pricing and plan limits;
- documentation and help;
- policies and contact options;
- supported languages;
- canonical URLs.
The anonymous audit is a limited 5-question Perplexity preview. Signed-in product flows may offer separate Skills Pack generation. Review the current product and pricing pages for exact access and allowances.
Review llms.txt
Check:
- title and summary match the site;
- every link uses the intended HTTPS canonical URL;
- descriptions are factual rather than promotional guarantees;
- private, obsolete, or duplicate pages are absent;
- the file is small enough for your team to maintain.
There is no universal link-count requirement. Do not add unsupported customer counts, outcomes, prices, or third-party endorsements.
Review agent.json
The current SkillAEO public example uses a conservative set of fields: name, description, canonical public URLs, supported languages, and experimental: true.
Remove:
- API keys, tokens, passwords, and private endpoints;
- unsupported capabilities or languages;
- unpublished pricing or customer information;
- claims that the file authorizes actions;
- claims of support by an AI vendor without direct documentation.
Validate that the JSON parses and that each URL opens without credentials.
Deploy on a static site or framework
Most frameworks serve files placed in a public/static directory at the domain root.
public/
├── llms.txt
└── agent.jsonAfter deployment, request:
https://example.com/llms.txt
https://example.com/agent.jsonConfirm a successful response, correct content type, and expected content. Framework and hosting behavior varies, so verify the built output rather than assuming the directory mapping.
Deploy on a CMS
For WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, or another CMS, use a supported static-file, route, or asset mechanism that produces the intended root URL. Avoid plugins or redirects you cannot maintain.
If the platform cannot serve a root file reliably, do not force a brittle workaround. The files are optional; accurate normal pages are more important.
Do not treat robots.txt as a discovery guarantee
You may choose to add this reference:
Llms-txt: /llms.txtHowever, Llms-txt: is not a standard robots directive and cannot guarantee discovery. Do not describe it as required. Keep crawler access rules aligned with your actual content and data-use policy.
Verification checklist
| Check | Pass condition |
|---|---|
/llms.txt | Public response contains reviewed Markdown |
/agent.json | Public response is valid JSON and matches reviewed content |
| URLs | Every linked page is current, canonical, and public |
| Secrets | No private values or internal endpoints are present |
| Claims | Prices, capabilities, languages, and descriptions match public pages |
| Duplication | /agent.json and /.well-known/agent.json agree if both are published |
| Ownership | A person or team has a review date and update trigger |
Do not use a score change as the only deployment test. Verify the actual files and public pages.
Maintenance
Review the files after material changes to:
- product positioning or name;
- prices and plans;
- features or integrations;
- documentation URLs;
- languages;
- policies and contact routes.
A stale optional file can create more confusion than no file.
How to observe external use
If server logs are available, you can record requests to the file. A request proves only that a client fetched the URL; it does not prove the content affected an answer.
For answer observations, save a documented baseline with exact prompts, system, date, response, and citations. Compare like-for-like runs without attributing every change to the files.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Skills Pack files required for AI visibility?
No. llms.txt is optional and SkillAEO's agent.json is experimental. Established public pages and technical SEO remain the primary foundation.
Where should the files be published?
If you choose to use them, publish at /llms.txt and /agent.json. You may also mirror the JSON at /.well-known/agent.json, but that does not make it a standard.
Can I edit generated files?
Yes. You should review and edit them before deployment. Generation does not prove accuracy.
Does robots.txt need an Llms-txt line?
No. It is an unofficial reference, not a standard directive, and cannot ensure discovery.
How do I know deployment succeeded?
Open the public URLs, inspect the exact content, validate JSON, test every link, and confirm no secrets or stale claims are present.