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Summary blockquote

Blockquote summary after the H1

In short: Put a one- or two-sentence > blockquote directly under the H1 saying who you are and what the file covers.

  • Category: Spec Conformance · weight 25 of 100 within the category
  • Spec Conformance is worth 10 in every profile (points of 100, by scoring profile)
  • Audit ID S2 (as shown on reports) · rubric v2.1

What it checks

Whether a blockquote summary follows directly after the H1.

Why it matters

The summary is the first thing an agent reads. One substantive sentence about who you are and what the site covers frames every link that follows.

When it applies

Always, for any llms.txt that exists.

An audit that doesn't apply, or that we couldn't verify, is removed from your score and its weight shared among the Spec Conformance audits that do apply. It is never scored as a zero.

How it's scored

1.0 when the file has a blockquote summary · 0 when it doesn’t. The summary is every line starting with > (at the very start of the line) that comes before the first ## section and the first link list, joined together.

How to fix

  1. Add a line starting with > directly under the H1.
  2. Say what the organization does and what the file covers, in one or two sentences.
  3. Avoid slogans; write what an agent needs to decide whether to read on.

Example

# Acme Payments

> Acme Payments provides card and bank payment APIs for online businesses. This file indexes our API reference, guides and pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Does the summary blockquote have to come directly after the H1?
The llms.txt format lists its parts “in the specific order”: H1, then the blockquote, then optional details, then H2 sections, so put the > line right under the H1. Our parser collects > lines that appear before the first ## section and before any link list, so an intro paragraph between the H1 and the quote doesn’t fail the check, but a quote placed after the first ## heading doesn’t count.

Sources: llms.txt format (v2) · Writing an llms.txt

Can the summary run over several lines or paragraphs?
Yes. Every line that starts with > before the first section is joined into one summary. Start each line with > at the very beginning of the line: a line without the marker is read as detail text, not summary, and a lone > with nothing after it doesn’t count as a summary at all.

Sources: CommonMark: block quotes · llms.txt format (v2)

Is a normal intro paragraph under the H1 enough instead of a blockquote?
No. Plain paragraphs are allowed (the format calls them “zero or more markdown sections … containing more detailed information”), but they are the details part, not the summary. This check looks for the blockquote itself, so turn your one- or two-sentence description into a > line and keep any longer prose below it.

Sources: llms.txt format (v2)

In our research, how common is the summary blockquote?
Across 187 llms.txt files (corpus captured 2026-10-10, rubric v2.1), the check applied to all 187 (0 not applicable) and 76.5% had a summary blockquote, for a mean score of 0.765. It is the spec check sites miss most often after link descriptions; netlify.com, aflac.com, taylormorrison.com, expedia.com and tavily.com all open with one.

Sources: LLMSRank method · Summary blockquote