crafting-effective-readmes
Use when writing or improving README files. Not all READMEs are the same — provides templates and guidance matched to your audience and project type.
Full skill instructions
READMEs answer questions your audience will have. Different audiences need different information - a contributor to an OSS project needs different context than future-you opening a config folder.
Always ask: Who will read this, and what do they need to know?
Ask: "What README task are you working on?"
| Task | When |
|---|---|
| Creating | New project, no README yet |
| Adding | Need to document something new |
| Updating | Capabilities changed, content is stale |
| Reviewing | Checking if README is still accurate |
Creating initial README:
Adding a section:
Updating existing content:
Reviewing/refreshing:
After drafting, ask: "Anything else to highlight or include that I might have missed?"
| Type | Audience | Key Sections | Template |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Source | Contributors, users worldwide | Install, Usage, Contributing, License | templates/oss.md |
| Personal | Future you, portfolio viewers | What it does, Tech stack, Learnings | templates/personal.md |
| Internal | Teammates, new hires | Setup, Architecture, Runbooks | templates/internal.md |
| Config | Future you (confused) | What's here, Why, How to extend, Gotchas | templates/xdg-config.md |
Ask the user if unclear. Don't assume OSS defaults for everything.
Every README needs at minimum:
section-checklist.md - Which sections to include by project typestyle-guide.md - Common README mistakes and prose guidanceusing-references.md - Guide to deeper reference materials
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