LLM files

Every site gets these, with no setting to turn on and no ai block needed.

The files

llms.txt tells readers about the .md and folder files, so an agent given the index can find the rest.

Links in llms.txt are absolute when seo.metadataBase or MARKLINE_SITE_URL is set, and paths otherwise.

Readers can also copy a page's Markdown from the page itself, with its page actions.

What they include

• Landing pages are left out of all of them.
• Pages the sidebar doesn't list still appear, under "More", after the sidebar's groups. In llms.txt the API reference section comes after that.
• A folder index is written for each top-level folder holding at least one page below it, such as docs/guides/setup.mdx. A folder with only an index page gets none.
• The changelog appears in llms.txt only as a link to /changelog: where the sidebar links it, or under "More" when there's a docs/changelog.mdx. Its entries aren't listed, and once there are entries /changelog has no .md (a docs/changelog.mdx is only its intro).
• Other versions and languages get a .md for each page (/v1/guides/setup.md), but llms.txt, llms-full.txt and the folder indexes cover only the default one.
• MDX components like <Note> stay as they are in the .md files; they read fine as context. import and export lines and comments are removed.

Serving the files

markline build and markline export write them as files, so a static export serves them from any host. markline dev serves the .md and folder llms.txt files live, from the current text. It doesn't regenerate /llms.txt or /llms-full.txt: those are from the last build, and a new project has none until its first build.

To write one yourself, put it in your own public/ folder: llms.txt, llms-full.txt, a page's .md or a folder's llms.txt. Markline keeps your copy and doesn't generate that file. The same goes for robots.txt and sitemap.xml. For llms.txt, llms-full.txt, robots.txt and sitemap.xml the build also says so. To start from Markline's version, copy the generated file into public/ and edit it; delete your copy to go back to the generated one.

Don't name a page after one of these files: a page called llms, llms-full or robots at the top, or llms in a folder, would replace the file in a static export, so markline export stops and lists it. See Static hosting.

Page actions

Every docs page has actions under its title for getting the page into an LLM. They're on by default, with no setting needed.

• Copy for LLM copies the page as Markdown.
• View as Markdown shows that Markdown in a window over the page, with its own copy button.
• Ask AI about this page opens the Ask AI panel about this page. It only appears when Ask AI is set up.

layout.pageActions picks how they look, for the whole site.

Inline

The default. The actions are links in a row under the page's lede.

Menu

"layout": { "pageActions": "menu" } shows a Copy for LLM button, with Ask AI beside it when Ask AI is set up. Copy for LLM's arrow opens the Markdown actions: View as Markdown and Open Markdown file (the page's .md in a new tab). The page's last_updated date moves to the left of the buttons. The help-center template uses this style.

These two were taken with layout.pageActions: "menu" and a last_updated date on the page. The site has Ask AI set up; without it, there's no Ask AI button, and the inline row starts at Copy for LLM.

Where the Markdown comes from

Both styles use the page's own .md file, fetched when the pointer or keyboard focus first reaches the actions, so they work on a static export. Until it has loaded, or if there's no .md file, they use the text of the page as rendered.

Where they show

On docs pages only: not on landing pages, hub pages or changelog pages. The API reference has its own actions on each section, the same in either style.

The setting applies to the whole site. A page can't change it, and the actions can't be added to, removed or reordered.