Open Knowledge Format (OKF) vs llms.txt
The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both.
| Open Knowledge Format OKF | llms.txt | |
|---|---|---|
| Lifecycle step | 4 Read: Give me the content | 4 Read: Give me the content |
| Answers | How can an organization package durable, structured knowledge (schemas, metrics, playbooks, runbooks) so both humans and agents can read, produce, and trust it without a bespoke SDK? | Where can an agent find a concise, curated map of a site's content, written for language models rather than browsers? |
| Governed by | Google Cloud open-source project; canonical repository is GoogleCloudPlatform/open-knowledge-format on GitHub (moved out of the GoogleCloudPlatform/knowledge-catalog monorepo in August 2026, which now carries only a frozen, unmaintained snapshot) | Jeremy Howard / Answer.AI; maintained as an open proposal in the AnswerDotAI/llms-txt GitHub repository with a public Discord for implementation discussion |
| Status (issuer's words) | "An open specification; contributions, alternative implementations, and adoption beyond Google products are all explicitly welcomed" | "This is v2 of the proposal" — explicitly a community proposal open for input, not a standards-track document |
| Version | v0.2 (2026-08) | v2 (2026-08) |
| Form / transport | document format | well-known file |
| Found at | /okf/index.md | /llms.txt (or /<path>/llms.txt, e.g. /docs/llms.txt) |
| Implementation | shipping — Google Cloud (Knowledge Catalog and 4 sample bundles: GA4, Stack Overflow, Bitcoin, Acme Retail), OpenKnowledge (OKF linter plugin), and agenticweb.wiki (163-concept OKF v0.2 knowledge bundle at /okf/index.md) | 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 |
| Evidence | 4 verified | 4 verified, 4 reported |
| Primary use case | Serve readable content to agents | Serve readable content to agents |
| Last verified | 2026-10-23 (current) | 2026-10-23 (current) |
| Specification | https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/open-knowledge-format/blob/main/SPEC.md | https://llmstxt.org |
When to use which
- Choose Open Knowledge Format when your question is “How can an organization package durable, structured knowledge (schemas, metrics, playbooks, runbooks) so both humans and agents can read, produce, and trust it without a bespoke SDK?” and you accept its maturity: status ""An open specification; contributions, alternative implementations, and adoption beyond Google products are all explicitly welcomed"", implementation shipping (Google Cloud (Knowledge Catalog and 4 sample bundles: GA4, Stack Overflow, Bitcoin, Acme Retail), OpenKnowledge (OKF linter plugin), and agenticweb.wiki (163-concept OKF v0.2 knowledge bundle at /okf/index.md)).
- 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).
Read the full articles
- Open Knowledge Format: How can an organization package durable, structured knowledge (schemas, metrics, playbooks, runbooks) so both humans and agents can read, produce, and trust it without a bespoke SDK?
- llms.txt: Where can an agent find a concise, curated map of a site's content, written for language models rather than browsers?