LLMS.MD FORMAT SPECIFICATION
The lightweight flat-key format for declaring creative rights to LLM crawlers and retrieval agents. Designed for fast, scannable parsing alongside the full cip.md declaration.
What llms.md is
llms.md is a lightweight, flat-key rights declaration file designed for LLM crawlers and AI retrieval agents. It uses simple Key: Value pairs on individual lines, with no deep sectioning or nested structure. The format is closer in spirit to robots.txt than to the full cip.md specification.
Where cip.md provides the authoritative, comprehensive declaration covering all eleven CIP sections, llms.md provides a scannable summary for systems that prioritise brevity and speed. It does not replace cip.md — it supplements it.
Deploy it at the root of your domain: yourdomain.com/llms.md
When to use llms.md
- Alongside cip.md — to provide broader AI crawler compatibility. Some AI systems look specifically for
llms.mdas a convention, separate from the CIP namespace. - When a fast signal matters — LLM retrieval pipelines that need to determine usage rights in a single pass without parsing structured sections.
- As a bridge format — for organisations adopting rights declarations incrementally, llms.md is simpler to create and deploy than the full cip.md.
For full CIP participation — including certification, registry integration, and contractual citation — the authoritative cip.md declaration is required.
Field list
All fields are optional. Include those relevant to your rights position. Each field occupies a single line in the format Key: Value.
| Field | Purpose | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | Organisation or individual making the declaration | Free text |
| Domain | Domain the declaration applies to | Domain name |
| Contact | Rights contact email | Email address |
| Declaration-Date | Date of issue | YYYY-MM-DD |
| Training-Ingestion | Whether AI training use is permitted | Permitted / Conditional / Prohibited |
| Training-Conditions | Conditions on training use, if Conditional | Free text |
| Fine-Tuning | Whether fine-tuning is permitted | Permitted / Conditional / Prohibited |
| Fine-Tuning-Conditions | Conditions on fine-tuning, if Conditional | Free text |
| TDM-Opt-Out | Text and data mining opt-out under DUA Act / EU AI Act | true / false |
| Summarisation | Whether summarisation is permitted | Permitted / Conditional / Prohibited |
| Translation | Whether translation is permitted | Permitted / Conditional / Prohibited |
| Adaptation | Whether adaptation is permitted | Permitted / Conditional / Prohibited |
| Attribution-Required | Whether attribution is required for any use | true / false |
| Attribution-Format | Specific attribution text required | Free text |
| Commercial-Output | Whether commercial output from ingested content is permitted | Permitted / Conditional / Prohibited |
| Human-Authored | Whether the content is human-authored | true / false |
| AI-Assisted | Whether AI tools were used in creation | true / false |
| Content-Type | Type of content on the domain | Free text |
| CIP-Declaration | Path to the full cip.md declaration | Relative URL |
| CIP-Spec-Version | CIP specification version being used | Version number |
Example llms.md file
# example.com — LLM Rights Declaration Operator: Example Creative Agency Ltd Domain: example.com Contact: rights@example.com Declaration-Date: 2026-01-15 Training-Ingestion: Prohibited TDM-Opt-Out: true Summarisation: Permitted Translation: Permitted Adaptation: Conditional — written licence required Attribution-Required: true Attribution-Format: "Source: Example Creative Agency" Commercial-Output: Prohibited Human-Authored: true AI-Assisted: false Content-Type: Portfolio work, case studies, client briefs CIP-Declaration: /cip.md CIP-Spec-Version: 1.0
Deployment
- Create a plain text file called
llms.mdusing the field list above. Include only the fields relevant to your rights position. - Place it at the root of your domain so it is accessible at
yourdomain.com/llms.md. In a Next.js project, this means placing it in thepublic/directory. - Ensure your
cip.mdfile is also deployed — theCIP-Declarationfield in llms.md should point to it. - Verify the file is served as plain text by visiting
yourdomain.com/llms.mdin a browser.
No server-side logic, build step, or CMS integration is required. The file is static plain text.