diff --git a/libs/core/langchain_core/output_parsers/xml.py b/libs/core/langchain_core/output_parsers/xml.py
index 3df9750f8e0..4fef349c498 100644
--- a/libs/core/langchain_core/output_parsers/xml.py
+++ b/libs/core/langchain_core/output_parsers/xml.py
@@ -142,6 +142,20 @@ class XMLOutputParser(BaseTransformOutputParser):
"""Parse an output using xml format."""
tags: Optional[list[str]] = None
+ """Tags to tell the LLM to expect in the XML output.
+
+ Note this may not be perfect depending on the LLM implementation.
+
+ For example, with tags=["foo", "bar", "baz"]:
+ 1. A well-formatted XML instance:
+ "\n \n \n \n"
+
+ 2. A badly-formatted XML instance (missing closing tag for 'bar'):
+ "\n \n "
+
+ 3. A badly-formatted XML instance (unexpected 'tag' element):
+ "\n \n \n"
+ """
encoding_matcher: re.Pattern = re.compile(
r"<([^>]*encoding[^>]*)>\n(.*)", re.MULTILINE | re.DOTALL
)