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GUIDE № 08 · CRAWLABILITY

How to Add an llms.txt File to Your Shopify Store

5 min read · Guide 8 of 17

There's a file most Shopify stores don't have yet: llms.txt. It's a plain text Markdown file that tells AI agents what your store is about, what you sell, and where to find key pages. Think of it as a sitemap, but written for AI.

It's a new standard and adoption is still early. That means adding one now puts you ahead of the majority of Shopify stores.

What is llms.txt?

llms.txt is a file that sits at yourstore.com/llms.txt. AI agents check for it to quickly understand what your store offers without having to crawl every page.

It uses Markdown format and typically includes:

  • A brief description of your store
  • Your main product categories
  • Links to important pages (collections, policies, about page)
  • Any special information AI agents should know

Sample llms.txt file

Here's what an llms.txt file looks like for a fictional home goods store: 

# Homestead & Co.

> Homestead & Co. is an online store selling handcrafted home goods
> made from natural materials. Based in Portland, Oregon. Ships across
> the United States.

## Product Categories

- [Blankets & Throws](https://homestead.co/collections/blankets)
- [Candles](https://homestead.co/collections/candles)
- [Ceramics](https://homestead.co/collections/ceramics)
- [Kitchen & Dining](https://homestead.co/collections/kitchen)

## Key Pages

- [All Products](https://homestead.co/collections/all)
- [About Us](https://homestead.co/pages/about)
- [Shipping Policy](https://homestead.co/policies/shipping-policy)
- [Return Policy](https://homestead.co/policies/refund-policy)

## Product Information

All products are handcrafted from natural materials. Materials include
organic cotton, beeswax, stoneware clay, and reclaimed wood. Most
products ship within 3-5 business days.

Keep it simple and factual. No marketing language — just the information an AI agent needs to understand your store.

The Shopify workaround

If your store doesn't yet have direct editing exposed (see the callout above), this workaround is the path. Shopify themes can't write a static file directly to the root, so historically merchants put a redirect in front of an uploaded file. The same approach overrides the Winter '26 auto-gen file when one exists.

The workaround involves two steps: upload the file to Shopify's CDN, then create a URL redirect that points /llms.txt at it.

Step 1: Write the file

Create your llms.txt file in a text editor. Follow the format from the example above. Replace the store name, categories, and links with your own. Save it as llms.txt.

Step 2: Upload to Shopify Files

  1. Go to Content > Files in your Shopify admin
  2. Click Upload files
  3. Select your llms.txt file
  4. After upload, Shopify gives you a CDN URL (it looks like https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/...)
  5. Copy that CDN URL — you need it for the next step

Step 3: Create a URL redirect

  1. Go to Online Store > Navigation in your Shopify admin
  2. Scroll down to URL redirects (or click "View URL redirects")
  3. Click Create URL redirect
  4. In the "Redirect from" field, enter: /llms.txt
  5. In the "Redirect to" field, paste the CDN URL from step 2
  6. Click Save redirect

Step 4: Verify it works

Open your browser and go to yourstore.com/llms.txt. You should be redirected to the CDN URL, and the file content should display in the browser.

AI agents follow redirects, so this works for them too. When an agent checks yourstore.com/llms.txt, it follows the 301 redirect and reads the file from the CDN.

What to include in your llms.txt

Focus on the basics:

  • Store name and description — one or two sentences about what you sell
  • Product categories — link to your main collections
  • Key pages — policies, about page, contact page
  • Product details — anything that applies across your catalog (materials, shipping info, target market)

Don't include:

  • Marketing slogans or promotional language
  • Every single product (that's what /products.json is for)
  • Prices (they change too often — let the agent check product pages for current pricing)

Updating your llms.txt

When you add new product categories or change your store structure, update the file. The process is the same: edit the file, re-upload to Content > Files, and update the URL redirect if the CDN URL changes.

How often should you update it? Whenever your product categories or store structure changes meaningfully. For most stores, that's a few times a year at most.

Optional: add a discovery tag

You can also add a <link> tag to your store's <head> to help AI agents discover your llms.txt file. Use the standard rel="alternate" convention with type="text/plain": 

<link rel="alternate" type="text/plain" href="/llms.txt" title="LLM site index">

Add this to your theme's theme.liquid file in the <head> section. This is optional — most AI agents check /llms.txt directly — but it doesn't hurt to have both. The canonical alternative is an HTTP Link: <https://example.com/llms.txt>; rel="llms-txt" response header, but Shopify themes can't set custom HTTP headers, so the HTML <link> tag is the practical option for Shopify stores.

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