---
title: "Sitemap defined | Agent Ready Checklist"
description: "Sitemap: XML file listing a site's canonical URLs for crawlers. One file holds up to 50,000 URLs; larger sites use a sitemap index."
canonical: https://agentreadychecklist.com/glossary/sitemap
site: "Agent Ready Checklist"
last_updated: 2026-11-05
section: "Glossary"
---

# Sitemap defined | Agent Ready Checklist

> Sitemap: XML file listing a site's canonical URLs for crawlers. One file holds up to 50,000 URLs; larger sites use a sitemap index.

Source: https://agentreadychecklist.com/glossary/sitemap
Site: Agent Ready Checklist
Last reviewed: 2026-11-05
Agent endpoints: https://agentreadychecklist.com/llms.txt (index), https://agentreadychecklist.com/openapi.json (API), https://agentreadychecklist.com/mcp (MCP server), https://agentreadychecklist.com/ask (search)
Access: https://agentreadychecklist.com/auth.md (no key). Pricing: https://agentreadychecklist.com/pricing.md (free).

# Sitemap

XML file listing a site's canonical URLs for crawlers. One file holds up to 50,000 URLs; larger sites use a sitemap index. Reference it from robots.txt. Example: <url><loc>https://example.com/docs/quickstart</loc></url>. Related row: AR-FIND-03 (Sitemap listed in robots.txt). 43 of 1,033 traced runs fetched sitemap.xml. The news item "Next.js 16.4.0 released" mentions Sitemap. The Verify Kit check sitemap-listed tests Sitemap.

## Definition

XML file listing a site's canonical URLs for crawlers. One file holds up to 50,000 URLs; larger sites use a sitemap index. Reference it from robots.txt.

## Example

```html
<url><loc>https://example.com/docs/quickstart</loc></url>
```

## Where it appears on the checklist

-   [AR-FIND-03](https://agentreadychecklist.com/checklist/ar-find-03/)Sitemap listed in robots.txt: List the site pages in a sitemap.xml and reference it from robots.txt with a Sitemap: line.
-   [Guide](https://agentreadychecklist.com/guides/one-day-agent-readiness-sprint/)The one-day agent-readiness sprint

## Asked about it

### Do I need a robots.txt at all?

The Vercel guide says a public site does not need one to permit crawling and recommends rules only for deliberate exclusions. The AgentReady spec recommends one wildcard group plus a Sitemap line. Cloudflare's scanner scores its presence.

## Sources

-   [sitemaps.org/protocol.html](https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html)read 2026-11-04
-   [vercel.com/kb/guide/make-your-site-readable-by-ai-agents](https://vercel.com/kb/guide/make-your-site-readable-by-ai-agents)read 2026-11-04
-   [github.com/vercel/next.js/releases/tag/v16.4.0](https://github.com/vercel/next.js/releases/tag/v16.4.0)read 2026-11-04

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. AgentReady v2.0, read 2026-11-04.