Skip to content

docs: make the README work for someone arriving at the repo - #3

Merged
oddurs merged 1 commit into
mainfrom
docs/readme-for-public-repo
Sep 11, 2026
Merged

oddurs merged 1 commit into
mainfrom
docs/readme-for-public-repo

Conversation

@oddurs

@oddurs oddurs commented Sep 11, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Owner

Problem

The README was written for someone who already had the working copy. On a public
repo it is the front door, and it had no clone step, no toolchain requirement, no
licence, no contributing section, and nothing telling a newcomer that the
workflow is worktree-and-PR rather than commit-to-main.

Approach

  • Install now starts from git clone and states the requirement — macOS 13+ and
    the Command Line Tools, no Xcode project to open.
  • Says plainly that the build is ad-hoc signed and therefore meant to be built
    locally, rather than letting someone discover that through a quarantine
    dialog.
  • A contributing section pointing at scripts/setup, scripts/task check and
    scripts/agent start, and at the render-frames skill for anything visual.
  • CI badge and licence.

Look at this sceptically

  • The badge will read "no status" until the next push to main finishes. It
    points at the workflow file, which is correct, but the first render may look
    broken for a minute.
  • The description of how it works is unchanged and is long for a README. It
    earns its place — the algorithm is the point of the project — but it is the
    first thing to move into a docs/ page if this grows.

It was written for someone who already had the working copy: no clone step, no
toolchain requirement, no licence, no contributing section, and nothing saying
the workflow is worktree-and-PR rather than commit-to-main.

Also states that the build is ad-hoc signed and meant to be built locally,
rather than letting someone find that out through a quarantine dialog.
@oddurs
oddurs merged commit 2227c05 into main Sep 11, 2026
2 checks passed
@oddurs
oddurs deleted the docs/readme-for-public-repo branch September 11, 2026 06:18
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

1 participant