othneildrew/best-readme-template

★ 16,064Audience · developerComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((README Template))
    Sections
      About the project
      Getting started
      Usage examples
      Contributing
    Features
      Status badges
      Table of contents
      Back-to-top links
    Audience
      Open-source authors
      Side project builders
    License
      Unlicense

mindmap root((README Template)) Sections About the project Getting started Usage examples Contributing Features Status badges Table of contents Back-to-top links Audience Open-source authors Side project builders License Unlicense

Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Copy BLANK_README.md into a new project and fill in the placeholders to get a professional-looking front page in minutes.

USE CASE 2

Use the template structure to tidy up an existing repository README that has grown messy or inconsistent.

USE CASE 3

Borrow the status badges, collapsible table of contents, and back-to-top links for your own custom README layout.

Tech stack

Markdown

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Released under the Unlicense, you can use, copy, modify, and distribute this template for any purpose with no conditions at all.

In plain English

This project is a ready-made template for the README file that sits at the top of a GitHub repository. The README is the front page that anyone landing on the project sees first, and writing one from scratch every time is repetitive work. The author built this template after looking at many other README templates and deciding none of them quite fit, with the goal of making one polished enough that it could be the last one you ever need to reach for. The way it works is simple: the repository contains a fully filled-in example README plus a stripped-down starter file called BLANK_README.md. You copy the blank file into your own project and replace the placeholder text, links, and screenshots with your own. The template lays out the sections most projects need, including an About section, a Built With list for the frameworks or libraries you used, Getting Started with Prerequisites and Installation steps, Usage examples, a Roadmap with checkbox items, Contributing instructions, License, Contact, and Acknowledgments. It also includes status badges at the top, a collapsible table of contents, and small back-to-top links scattered through long sections. Someone would reach for this when starting a new open-source project and wanting a professional-looking front page without spending an afternoon on layout. It is equally useful for tidying up an existing repository whose README has grown messy. The repository itself is just Markdown plus some images and reference-style links, so there is no programming language, framework, or runtime to install. The project is distributed under the Unlicense license. The full README is longer than what was provided.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Using the best-readme-template structure, fill in a README for my Python CLI tool that converts CSV files to SQLite databases. Include badges, installation steps, and a usage example.

Prompt 2

I copied BLANK_README.md but I am not sure what to put in the Roadmap section. Give me five checkbox roadmap items for an open-source note-taking app.

Prompt 3

Generate shields.io badge markdown for my GitHub repo showing the last commit date, the MIT license, and a passing CI status.

Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

← othneildrew on gitmyhub — every repo by this author, as a profile.

Verify against the repo before relying on details.