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Chapter 4

Plain Text Version

Overview

Helios Open Reader can publish your content as a structured plain-text file — a single URL that always reflects current content, readable by people and tools alike. This is useful for:

  • Open access — share one stable link to all reader content in a portable, format-neutral form
  • Ebook generation — use /llms-full.txt as input for tools like Pandoc to produce EPUB, DOCX, or PDF output (note: shortcode syntax will appear as literal text)
  • Search and indexing — machine-readable content that any tool can consume without parsing HTML
  • Compatible with AI tools — the plain text format can be read by AI tools if instructors or students choose to use them

When enabled, two endpoints are served from your site root:

Endpoint Contents
/llms.txt Site title, description, and a linked index of all included pages with their descriptions
/llms-full.txt Everything in /llms.txt plus the raw Markdown content of each page

Enabling the Feature

Go to Admin → Plugins → Helios Open Reader → Plain Text Version and toggle Enable Plain Text Version on.

Once enabled, both endpoints are immediately available at your site's root URL.

Note

The feature is disabled by default. No endpoints are served until it is turned on.

When the plain text version is enabled, a Plain text version link can optionally appear in the page footer linking visitors to /llms-full.txt. Use Show Plain Text Version Link in Footer to show or hide it, and Plain Text Version Link Label to customise the link text.

Controlling Which Pages Appear

The Include Page Templates setting controls which page types are included in the output. The default is section-page, which matches the standard Open Reader content pages.

To include other page types, add their template names (e.g. default, default-toc) to the list in the Admin panel.

Tip

The raw Markdown in /llms-full.txt includes shortcode syntax (e.g.

Definition

…
), which will appear as literal text in Pandoc output and most other tools.