robots.txt sets boundaries
robots.txt is useful for blocking private areas, dashboards, auth pages, API routes, and other surfaces that should not be crawled.
Comparison guide
llms.txt vs robots.txt: permission is not the same as intent.
robots.txt tells crawlers what they may access. llms.txt points AI systems toward what the business wants understood first.
Core idea
robots.txt is about access. llms.txt is about meaning, priority, and approved knowledge direction.
llms.txt expresses knowledge intent
llms.txt can say: here is the business overview, here are the authoritative service pages, here is the topic map, and here are the next-step paths.
A mature setup uses both
Aliigo's view is simple: protect what should not be crawled, then make approved public knowledge easier to understand and reuse.
Frequently asked questions
What to clarify before you publish
Does robots.txt tell AI what to understand?
No. It controls access preferences. It does not organize business meaning or source priority.
Should llms.txt include private content?
No. It should point to approved public knowledge or generated public summaries the business is comfortable publishing.