Mark McNeece of 365i

<p><strong>AI systems are answering questions about your business right now.</strong> When someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity about your services, they either get it right or they guess. Most of the time, they guess wrong — confusing you with competitors, fabricating services you don’t offer, and recommending someone else entirely.</p>
<p><strong>AI Discovery Files fix this.</strong> They are machine-readable files at the root of your website that tell AI systems exactly who you are, what you do, and how to refer to your brand. Think of them as <code>robots.txt</code> for AI — except instead of telling crawlers what to ignore, you tell AI systems what to get right.</p>
<p>This is the <strong>only WordPress plugin that generates all 10 AI Discovery Files</strong> defined in the <a href="https://www.ai-visibility.org.uk/specifications/" rel="nofollow ugc">AI Discovery Files Specification</a>.</p>
<h4>Why your website needs AI Discovery Files</h4>
<p>Without AI Discovery Files, your website is invisible to AI — not ranking poorly, <strong>completely absent from AI responses</strong>. With AI Discovery Files, you give every major AI system a single, authoritative source of truth about your business. You get mentioned. You get cited. You get recommended.</p>
<p>This is not traditional SEO. This is <strong>AI visibility</strong> — also called generative engine optimisation (GEO) or answer engine optimisation (AEO). Whatever you call it, it starts with AI Discovery Files.</p>
<h4>All 10 AI Discovery Files</h4>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ai-visibility.org.uk/specifications/" rel="nofollow ugc">AI Discovery Files Specification</a> defines 10 file types across three implementation tiers:</p>
<p><strong>Essential (start here)</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><code>llms.txt</code> — AI-readable business identity (Markdown)</li>
<li><code>ai.txt</code> — AI usage permissions (plain text)</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Recommended</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><code>identity.json</code> — Structured business identity (JSON)</li>
<li><code>ai.json</code> — Machine-parseable permissions (JSON)</li>
<li><code>brand.txt</code> — Brand naming and terminology rules</li>
<li><code>faq-ai.txt</code> — Pre-answered questions for AI systems</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Complete</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><code>llm.txt</code> — Compatibility redirect to llms.txt</li>
<li><code>llms.html</code> — Human-readable reference version</li>
<li><code>developer-ai.txt</code> — Technical context for developers</li>
<li><code>robots-ai.txt</code> — AI crawler-specific directives</li>
</ul>
<p>Most competing plugins only generate <code>llms.txt</code>. This plugin generates <strong>all 10 files</strong>, giving you complete coverage across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and every other major AI system.</p>
<h4>How it works</h4>
<ol>
<li>Install and activate the plugin</li>
<li>Fill in your business details on the settings page</li>
<li>Choose which files to enable</li>
<li>The plugin serves the files at the correct root URLs (e.g., <code>yoursite.com/llms.txt</code>)</li>
</ol>
<p>Files are generated dynamically from your settings — no files are written to disk, and everything updates automatically when you change your settings.</p>
<h4>Key features</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Auto-detection</strong> — pulls your site name, tagline, pages, theme, and WordPress version automatically</li>
<li><strong>All 10 file types</strong> — the only plugin that generates every AI Discovery File, not just llms.txt</li>
<li><strong>Three implementation tiers</strong> — start with Essential and expand when ready</li>
<li><strong>Live preview</strong> — see exactly what each file contains before enabling it</li>
<li><strong>Validation</strong> — checks files against the specification and flags issues</li>
<li><strong>AI Crawler Analytics</strong> — see which AI bots read your AI Discovery Files, with visual dashboards and CSV export</li>
<li><strong>Discovery File Access tracking</strong> — proof that AI bots are reading the files this plugin generates</li>
<li><strong>robots.txt conflict detection</strong> — warns when your robots.txt contradicts your AI visibility settings</li>
<li><strong>Conflict detection</strong> — warns if physical files already exist at the same URLs</li>
<li><strong>Directory verification</strong> — verify domain ownership for the <a href="https://www.ai-visibility.org.uk/" rel="nofollow ugc">AI Visibility Directory</a> without FTP</li>
<li><strong>No lock-in</strong> — disable the plugin and the files simply stop being served</li>
<li><strong>Developer-friendly</strong> — filters for every generated file and collected data point</li>
</ul>
<h4>Who needs this?</h4>
<p>Every WordPress site that wants to be found, mentioned, and correctly cited by AI systems. Local businesses, agencies, ecommerce stores, SaaS companies, professional services — if AI is answering questions about your industry, you need to control what it says about you.</p>
<p>Built by <a href="https://www.ai-visibility.org.uk/" rel="nofollow ugc">AI Visibility</a>, the publisher of the AI Discovery Files Specification and the team behind the <a href="https://www.ai-visibility.org.uk/ai-visibility-checker/" rel="nofollow ugc">AI Visibility Checker</a>.</p>


AI Discovery Files – llms.txt & AI Visibility

The only WordPress plugin that generates all 10 AI Discovery Files and shows which AI bots read them. Built by 365i.

Freemius

Sajjad Ali

Pagup

<p>Better Robots.txt replaces the default WordPress robots.txt workflow with a smarter, structured version you can configure and preview before publishing.</p>
<p>Instead of a blank textarea, you get a guided wizard with presets, plain-language explanations, and a final Review & Save step so you can inspect the generated robots.txt before it goes live.</p>
<p>Built for beginners and advanced users alike, Better Robots.txt helps you control how search engines, AI crawlers, SEO tools, archive bots, bad bots, social preview bots, and other automated agents interact with your site.</p>
<p>Trusted by thousands of WordPress sites, Better Robots.txt is designed for the AI era without resorting to hype, vague promises, or hidden rules.</p>
<p>Better Robots.txt is available in Free, Pro, and Premium editions. The free plugin covers the guided workflow and essential crawl control features, while Pro and Premium unlock additional governance, protection, and AI-ready modules. Some screenshots on the plugin page show features from all three editions.</p>
<h3>A quick overview</h3>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="Better robots.txt Video — AI-Ready Crawl Control for WordPress" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1169756981?dnt=1&app_id=122963" width="750" height="372" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe></p>
<h3>Why Better Robots.txt is different</h3>
<p>Most robots.txt plugins fall into one of three categories:</p>
<ul>
<li>Simple text editor</li>
<li>Virtual robots.txt manager</li>
<li>Single-purpose AI or policy add-on</li>
</ul>
<p>Better Robots.txt goes further.</p>
<p>It gives you a complete, guided crawl control workflow so you can:</p>
<ul>
<li>Choose a preset that matches your goals</li>
<li>Control major crawler categories without writing everything by hand</li>
<li>Keep core WordPress protection rules visible and editable</li>
<li>Clean up low-value crawl paths that waste crawl budget</li>
<li>Generate a cleaner robots.txt output</li>
<li>Preview the final result before saving</li>
</ul>
<h3>What you can control</h3>
<p>Better Robots.txt helps you manage:</p>
<ul>
<li>Search engine visibility</li>
<li>AI and LLM crawler behavior</li>
<li>AI usage signals such as search, ai-input, and ai-train preferences</li>
<li>SEO tool crawlers</li>
<li>Bad bots and abusive crawlers</li>
<li>Archive and Wayback access</li>
<li>Feed crawlers and crawl traps</li>
<li>WooCommerce crawl cleanup</li>
<li>CSS, JavaScript, and image crawling rules</li>
<li>Social media preview crawlers</li>
<li>ads.txt and app-ads.txt allowance</li>
<li>llms.txt generation</li>
<li>Advanced directives such as crawl-delay and custom rules</li>
<li>Final review before publishing</li>
</ul>
<h3>Editions</h3>
<p>Better Robots.txt is available in three editions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Free – Includes the guided setup, the Essential preset, core crawl control features, and the final Review & Save workflow.</li>
<li>Pro – Adds more advanced governance and protection modules, including additional AI, crawler, and cleanup controls.</li>
<li>Premium – Unlocks the most restrictive and advanced protection options, including the Fortress preset and additional high-control modules.</li>
</ul>
<p>Some options shown in the interface are marked Free, Pro, or Premium so users can immediately understand which modules belong to each edition.</p>
<h3>Presets</h3>
<p>Setup starts with four modes:</p>
<ul>
<li>Essential – A clean, practical configuration for most websites that want a better robots.txt without complexity.</li>
<li>AI-First – For publishers and content sites that want AI-ready governance without shutting down discovery.</li>
<li>Fortress – For websites that want stronger protection against scraping, archive capture, and unnecessary crawl activity.</li>
<li>Custom – For users who prefer to configure each module manually.</li>
</ul>
<p>For many sites, one preset plus a quick review is enough.</p>
<h3>Built for beginners and experts</h3>
<p>Beginners get:</p>
<ul>
<li>A guided setup instead of a raw robots.txt box</li>
<li>Preset-based configuration</li>
<li>Plain-language explanations for important choices</li>
<li>A safer workflow with a final preview step</li>
</ul>
<p>Advanced users get:</p>
<ul>
<li>Editable core WordPress protection rules</li>
<li>Fine-grained crawler controls by category</li>
<li>WooCommerce-oriented cleanup options</li>
<li>Consolidated output options</li>
<li>Advanced directives and custom rules</li>
<li>A final output they can inspect before publishing</li>
</ul>
<h3>AI-ready, without hype</h3>
<p>Better Robots.txt includes features for modern AI-related crawl governance, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>AI crawler handling</li>
<li>Optional llms.txt support</li>
<li>AI usage signals for compliant systems</li>
<li>Optional machine-readable governance signals for advanced use cases</li>
</ul>
<p>These features help you express how you want automated systems to use your content.</p>
<p>However, Better Robots.txt does not claim to control AI by force. Like robots.txt itself, these signals are most useful with compliant systems and good-faith crawlers.</p>
<h3>What Better Robots.txt is</h3>
<p>Better Robots.txt is:</p>
<ul>
<li>A robots.txt governance plugin for WordPress</li>
<li>A guided configuration workflow instead of a raw text editor</li>
<li>A crawl control layer to reduce wasteful crawling</li>
<li>A practical bridge between SEO, crawl hygiene, and AI-era policy signaling</li>
<li>A way to keep your crawl policy clearer for humans and machines</li>
</ul>
<p>Technical reference for advanced users: Better Robots.txt also maintains a public <a href="https://github.com/GautierDorval/better-robots-txt" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer ugc">GitHub repository</a> with product definition, governance notes, and machine-readable artefacts.</p>
<h3>What Better Robots.txt is not</h3>
<p>Better Robots.txt is not:</p>
<ul>
<li>A firewall or Web Application Firewall (WAF)</li>
<li>An anti-scraping enforcement engine</li>
<li>A legal compliance engine</li>
<li>A guarantee that every bot will obey your rules</li>
<li>A replacement for server-level security or access control</li>
</ul>
<p>It helps you publish a clearer crawl policy.</p>
<p>It does not replace infrastructure-level protection.</p>
<h3>Typical use cases</h3>
<p>Use Better Robots.txt if you want to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Clean up a weak or noisy default robots.txt</li>
<li>Reduce crawl waste on WordPress or WooCommerce</li>
<li>Keep major search engines allowed while restricting other bots</li>
<li>Control whether archive bots can snapshot your site</li>
<li>Publish AI usage preferences more clearly</li>
<li>Keep social preview bots allowed while limiting scrapers</li>
<li>Review the final file before making it live</li>
</ul>
<h3>Key Features</h3>
<ul>
<li>Guided step-by-step wizard</li>
<li>Preset-based setup: Essential, AI-First, Fortress, Custom</li>
<li>Search engine visibility controls</li>
<li>AI and LLM crawler governance</li>
<li>AI usage signals support</li>
<li>SEO tool crawler controls</li>
<li>Bad bot and abusive crawler options</li>
<li>Archive and Wayback access controls</li>
<li>Spam, feed, and crawl trap cleanup</li>
<li>WooCommerce crawl cleanup options</li>
<li>CSS, JavaScript, and image crawling rules</li>
<li>Social media preview crawler controls</li>
<li>ads.txt and app-ads.txt allowance</li>
<li>Optional llms.txt generation</li>
<li>Consolidated output option</li>
<li>Core WordPress protection rules remain visible and editable</li>
<li>Final Review & Save preview screen</li>
</ul>
<h4>About the publisher</h4>
<p>Better Robots.txt is developed and maintained by <a href="https://pagup.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Pagup</a>, a digital readability firm based in Quebec, Canada. Pagup helps organizations become correctly understood by search engines, generative AI systems, and autonomous agents.</p>
<p>The robots.txt file is the first surface that AI crawlers read when they discover a site. A well-structured robots.txt that references governance files such as llms.txt, ai-manifest.json, and interpretation policies helps AI systems understand your site faster and more accurately.</p>
<p>Better Robots.txt is one component of a broader digital readability practice that includes <a href="https://pagup.com/en/services/semantic-content-architecture/" rel="nofollow ugc">semantic content architecture</a>, <a href="https://pagup.com/en/services/ai-governance-and-machine-readability/" rel="nofollow ugc">AI governance and machine readability</a>, and <a href="https://pagup.com/en/glossary/interpretive-seo/" rel="nofollow ugc">interpretive SEO</a>.</p>
<h4>Part of the Pagup ecosystem</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://pagup.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">pagup.com</a> — Digital readability firm. Diagnostic, semantic architecture, AI governance.</li>
<li><a href="https://gautierdorval.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">gautierdorval.com</a> — Doctrine, canonical definitions, interpretive governance research.</li>
<li><a href="https://interpretive-governance.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">interpretive-governance.org</a> — Formal versioned standard for interpretive governance.</li>
<li><a href="https://better-robots.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">better-robots.com</a> — Documentation and resources for Better Robots.txt.</li>
</ul>


Better Robots.txt – AI-Ready Crawl Control & Bot Governance

Replace the default WordPress robots.txt workflow with a smarter, structured version you can preview before publishing, with Free, Pro, and Premium ed …

AI Discovery Files – llms.txt & AI Visibility vs Better Robots.txt – AI-Ready Crawl Control & Bot Governance