crafting-effective-readmes

1# Crafting Effective READMEs
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3## Overview
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5READMEs 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.
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7**Always ask:** Who will read this, and what do they need to know?
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9## Process
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11### Step 1: Identify the Task
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13**Ask:** "What README task are you working on?"
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15| Task | When |
16|------|------|
17| **Creating** | New project, no README yet |
18| **Adding** | Need to document something new |
19| **Updating** | Capabilities changed, content is stale |
20| **Reviewing** | Checking if README is still accurate |
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22### Step 2: Task-Specific Questions
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24**Creating initial README:**
251. What type of project? (see Project Types below)
262. What problem does this solve in one sentence?
273. What's the quickest path to "it works"?
284. Anything notable to highlight?
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30**Adding a section:**
311. What needs documenting?
322. Where should it go in the existing structure?
333. Who needs this info most?
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35**Updating existing content:**
361. What changed?
372. Read current README, identify stale sections
383. Propose specific edits
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40**Reviewing/refreshing:**
411. Read current README
422. Check against actual project state (package.json, main files, etc.)
433. Flag outdated sections
444. Update "Last reviewed" date if present
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46### Step 3: Always Ask
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48After drafting, ask: **"Anything else to highlight or include that I might have missed?"**
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50## Project Types
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