{
 "url": "https://agenticweb.wiki/compare/llms-txt-vs-agents-txt/",
 "title": "llms.txt vs agents.txt: differences, status, adoption",
 "description": "llms.txt vs agents.txt: The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both. Side-by-side step, governance, status, version…",
 "markdown_url": "https://agenticweb.wiki/compare/llms-txt-vs-agents-txt/index.md",
 "markdown": "# llms.txt vs agents.txt\n\nThe map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both. They answer different questions: llms.txt is a step 4 (Read) standard, agents.txt step 1 (Discover), so they are not substitutes.\n\n[4 Read](/category/read/) [llms.txt](/protocols/llms-txt/) · [1 Discover](/category/discover/) [agents.txt](/protocols/agents-txt/)\n\n|  | [llms.txt](/protocols/llms-txt/) | [agents.txt](/protocols/agents-txt/) |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Lifecycle step | 4 Read: Give me the content | 1 Discover: What is here, and where? |\n| Answers | Where can an agent find a concise, curated map of a site's content, written for language models rather than browsers? | Which agent-facing protocols (payments, auth, MCP, skills, A2A) does this site speak, and where? |\n| Governed by | Jeremy Howard / Answer.AI; maintained as an open proposal in the AnswerDotAI/llms-txt GitHub repository with a public Discord for implementation discussion | None; at least three non-converging proposals (agents-txt.com, kaylacar/agents-txt, agentstxt.dev) each self-describe as \"the\" agents.txt standard, with no shared maintainer or reconciliation process found |\n| Status (issuer's words) | \"This is v2 of the proposal\" — explicitly a community proposal open for input, not a standards-track document | \"An open standard proposal for declaring what AI agents can do on a website\" (kaylacar/agents-txt); a Mastercard developer-documentation page independently characterizes the space as \"IETF draft expired ... fragmented landscape with 11+ competing proposals ... no ratified standard\" |\n| Version | v2 (2026-08) | agents-txt.com: v1.0; competing proposals carry no shared version |\n| Form / transport | well-known file | well-known file |\n| Found at | /llms.txt (or /<path>/llms.txt, e.g. /docs/llms.txt) | /agents.txt (well-known root path per all identified proposals; one proposal also allows /.well-known/agents.txt) |\n| Implementation | multi-implementation — Rankability (Tranco top-1000, June 2026: 8.7%) and SE Ranking (~300,000 domains analyzed: 10.13%) — independent third-party publisher-side counts, not our own probe | prototype |\n| Evidence | 4 verified, 4 reported | 3 verified, 1 reported |\n| Primary use case | Serve readable content to agents | Let agents discover my API or service |\n| Last verified | 2026-10-23 (current) | 2026-10-23 (current) |\n| Specification | [https://llmstxt.org](https://llmstxt.org) | [https://agents-txt.com/spec](https://agents-txt.com/spec) |\n\n## When to use which\n\n- Choose llms.txt when your question is “Where can an agent find a concise, curated map of a site's content, written for language models rather than browsers?” and you accept its maturity: status \"\"This is v2 of the proposal\" — explicitly a community proposal open for input, not a standards-track document\", implementation multi-implementation (Rankability (Tranco top-1000, June 2026: 8.7%) and SE Ranking (~300,000 domains analyzed: 10.13%) — independent third-party publisher-side counts, not our own probe).\n- Choose agents.txt when your question is “Which agent-facing protocols (payments, auth, MCP, skills, A2A) does this site speak, and where?” and you accept its maturity: status \"\"An open standard proposal for declaring what AI agents can do on a website\" (kaylacar/agents-txt); a Mastercard developer-documentation page independently characterizes the space as \"IETF draft expired ... fragmented landscape with 11+ competing proposals ... no ratified standard\"\", implementation prototype.\n\nGuidance is derived from the two records (question, status, implementation, prerequisites, pairings), not from opinion. Each record's page carries its numbered references.\n\n## Read the full articles\n\n- [llms.txt](/protocols/llms-txt/): Where can an agent find a concise, curated map of a site's content, written for language models rather than browsers?\n- [agents.txt](/protocols/agents-txt/): Which agent-facing protocols (payments, auth, MCP, skills, A2A) does this site speak, and where?\n\nAsk the MCP server to compare any two: the compare-protocols prompt, or get on both ids. [Connect](/connect/).\n\n[llms-txt.json](/data/protocols/llms-txt.json) · [agents-txt.json](/data/protocols/agents-txt.json) · [Markdown](/compare/llms-txt-vs-agents-txt/index.md)\n"
}