--- title: How to write a good README | daily.dev description: README file is as indispensable for an open source project as it is the quality of the code. README files are plain text files because most of the source code... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-write-a-good-readme-tizndc5ll twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How to write a good README | daily.dev og:description: README file is as indispensable for an open source project as it is the quality of the code. README files are plain text files because most of the source code... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-write-a-good-readme-tizndc5ll og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/TIzNDc5lL.png og:image:alt: How to write a good README og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How to write a good README **[DEV](https://daily.dev/sources/devto)** · 11 min read · 143 upvotes · 6 comments ## Summary README file is as indispensable for an open source project as it is the quality of the code. README files are plain text files because most of the source code hostings such as Github, GitLab or Azure Repos support the Markdown format. Using around 3 to 5 lines is a good rule of thumb. Each paragraph should have only one concept. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@leedotpang** · 1 upvotes > Essential read for devs of any experience level **@notrab** · 1 upvotes > I love a good README! **@jrgnupro** · 0 upvotes > Good tips and cool. Thanks **@dabralashish** · 0 upvotes > very helpful <3 --- Tags: [#react](https://daily.dev/tags/react), [#react-native](https://daily.dev/tags/react-native), [#mit](https://daily.dev/tags/mit), [#markdown](https://daily.dev/tags/markdown) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-write-a-good-readme-tizndc5ll) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How to write a good README","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-write-a-good-readme-tizndc5ll","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-write-a-good-readme-tizndc5ll"},"datePublished":"2022-10-19T11:59:55.175Z","dateModified":"2022-10-19T11:59:55.173Z","description":"README file is as indispensable for an open source project as it is the quality of the code. 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Thanks","datePublished":"2022-10-26T15:44:41.491Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/TIzNDc5lL#c-HhrsXbA7g","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jr Gnu","url":"https://daily.dev/jrgnupro","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/91812143?v=4"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"very helpful <3","datePublished":"2022-10-26T06:05:53.186Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/TIzNDc5lL#c-1IN4f_ceX","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashish Dabral","url":"https://daily.dev/dabralashish","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--VpkzDe6h--/f_auto/v1722747281/avatars/avatar_GDiyThWP9f9rTtO2Em0UV"}}]} ```