Definition
A root-level content index file aimed at large models (emerging standard).
Why it matters
Treated as an aid it costs an hour and can only help. Treated as a switch that makes a brand visible it wastes attention that belongs on crawlability, structured facts and third-party sources.
How to measure it
Validate that it exists, starts with an H1, groups links into sections and uses markdown links instead of bare URLs. Then confirm every page it points at is itself crawlable, since a file pointing at blocked pages helps nobody.