Do you need an llms.txt file?

No. It’s optional and experimental.

The llms.txt file is optional and still experimental. Your site will work exactly the same without it, and there is no requirement from search engines or platforms to add it.

That said, an llms.txt file can be useful if you want to give AI systems clearer guidance about your content. It can help explain what your site is about, which sections are important, how your content is structured, or how you prefer it to be referenced. This may improve how some AI tools interpret or summarize your pages.

If you don’t have specific goals around AI visibility, documentation, or content reuse, you can safely ignore it for now. If you do care about how AI systems understand your site, adding an llms.txt file can be a simple, low-risk way to provide that context.