Generating individual Markdown files

The llmstxt.org specification recommends that llms.txt link to a Markdown version of each page. With generateMarkdownFiles: true, the plugin writes a .md file for every document and points the llms.txt links at those files.

This page covers how the plugin names and lays out the files, what each file contains, and the options that set file names and locations. For the format of llms.txt itself, see generated output. For content cleaning options that also apply here, see content cleaning.

What generateMarkdownFiles does

generateMarkdownFiles is a boolean that defaults to false. When you leave it off, llms.txt links to your HTML pages:

- [Getting Started](https://yoursite.com/docs/getting-started)

When you turn it on, the plugin writes an individual Markdown file for each document and links to that file instead:

- [Getting Started](https://yoursite.com/docs/getting-started.md)

Each generated file holds the page's Markdown after content cleaning. A minimal configuration looks like this:

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    [
      'docusaurus-plugin-llms',
      {
        generateMarkdownFiles: true, // write individual .md files
        generateLLMsTxt: true, // index file that links to them
        excludeImports: true, // strip MDX import statements
        removeDuplicateHeadings: true, // drop lines that repeat a heading
        includeOrder: ['getting-started/*', 'guides/*', 'api/*'],
      },
    ],
  ],
};

generateMarkdownFiles works alongside the other options. Content cleaning (excludeImports, removeDuplicateHeadings), ordering (includeOrder), path transformation, and customLLMFiles all apply to the generated files.

Linking with addMdExtension

addMdExtension is a boolean that defaults to true. It appends .md to the link URLs in llms.txt so they resolve to the generated Markdown files. It applies only when generateMarkdownFiles is true, because the .md files must exist for the links to resolve.

A Docusaurus page served at https://example.com/docs/getting-started/ becomes this link:

- [Getting Started](https://example.com/docs/getting-started.md)

The plugin strips trailing slashes before it adds the extension, and leaves a URL that already ends in .md as it is. To keep the Docusaurus page URLs in llms.txt while still generating the files, set the option to false:

{
  addMdExtension: false,
}

Where files are written with preserveDirectoryStructure

preserveDirectoryStructure is a boolean that defaults to true. It controls whether generated files mirror the directory layout of your build output or are flattened relative to the docs root.

With the default (true), a file keeps its directory path so it can sit next to the matching HTML file and be served from the same URL with a .md extension:

docs/server/config.md → build/docs/server/config.md

With preserveDirectoryStructure: false, the leading docs directory segment is dropped and the file is flattened:

docs/server/config.md → build/server/config.md

With the default, a page served at https://yoursite.com/docs/server/config gets its Markdown at https://yoursite.com/docs/server/config.md.

Generated file structure

With generateMarkdownFiles: true and the default preserveDirectoryStructure: true, the build output contains the index files plus a Markdown tree that mirrors your docs:

build/
├── llms.txt              # index file linking to the generated markdown files
├── llms-full.txt         # full content file (if generateLLMsFullTxt is enabled)
├── docs/                 # directory structure preserved (default)
│   ├── getting-started.md
│   ├── api/
│   │   └── reference.md
│   └── server/
│       └── config.md
└── ...

With preserveDirectoryStructure: false, the same files land flattened relative to the docs root:

build/
├── llms.txt
├── llms-full.txt
├── getting-started.md
├── api/
│   └── reference.md
└── server/
    └── config.md

How filenames are chosen

The plugin derives each output path from the document's resolved information, in this order:

1. Front matter slug: if the document sets a slug, it becomes the output path. A slug containing / creates the matching directory structure; a slug without / replaces only the filename.
2. Front matter id: if there's no slug but there is an id, it's used the same way.
3. Resolved page URL: otherwise the path comes from the document's built URL (or its source file path if the URL isn't available). Numeric ordering prefixes like 01- are stripped from each path segment. A directory index (index.md, README.md, or a <folder>/<folder>.md file, in any letter case) takes its directory's URL: docs/guide/README.md is served at /docs/guide/, so its file is docs/guide.md.
4. Sanitized title: when the path would otherwise be empty, the document title is turned into a filename (lowercased, unsafe characters and whitespace replaced with -).

When two documents would get the same path, the plugin appends a counter (config-2.md, config-3.md, and so on). A page whose URL is the site root is written as index.md.

What each file contains

Every generated file is built from the document's title, description, and processed content:

• The title becomes an H1 heading.
• The description, when present, follows as a blockquote, matching the llmstxt.org format. For where the description comes from, see page titles and descriptions.
• The processed content comes next, with content cleaning applied. A body paragraph that repeats the description is dropped.

If you list keys in keepFrontMatter, the plugin writes a YAML front matter block at the top of each file containing only those keys. keepFrontMatter is a string[] that defaults to [], and it only takes effect when generateMarkdownFiles is enabled. Keys you don't list are dropped.

Example generated file

A document titled "API Authentication" with a description produces api-authentication.md (or a path derived from its slug or URL):

# API Authentication

> Authenticate API requests with an API key or an OAuth token.

## Overview

Send the API key in the `Authorization` header of each request...

## API Key Authentication

Use your API key to authenticate requests:

    const client = new Client({ apiKey: 'your-key' });

Generate only llms.txt and the Markdown files

To skip the combined llms-full.txt, turn it off and keep the index and the individual files:

{
  generateMarkdownFiles: true,
  generateLLMsTxt: true,
  generateLLMsFullTxt: false,
}