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I built the first working version before writing its README. That order gave me something concrete to describe: what the project did, how to get it running, and where its rough edges were. It was my sequence, not a rule for every project. A README can help clarify a project before implementation, too; in my case, writing it after the MVP helped me document what actually existed rather than what I expected to build.
What changed once the MVP worked
Before implementation, a project is partly an idea: its intended purpose, likely setup steps, and hoped-for features. Once the MVP runs, those assumptions can be checked against the working version. The README then has to explain the project a new reader can inspect, not an aspirational version of it.
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For me, writing after the first version meant making the practical path explicit: what the project is for, how someone can get started, what assumptions or dependencies matter, and what remains unfinished. These are useful questions to ask while documenting any MVP, but the specifics belong to each project; a README should not claim features or ease of use the code does not support.
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A README is an orientation page for people browsing a repository, especially someone encountering it for the first time. Google’s README guidance recommends explaining the project or package’s purpose, how to use it, its status and points of contact where relevant, and where to find deeper documentation: Google Style Guides: READMEs. A useful starting checklist is:
#1 Best Overall
- Purpose: Say what the project does and what the repository or package contains.
- First useful action: Give the shortest successful setup or usage path that the project supports.
- Status: Make clear whether it is an MVP, actively maintained, experimental, or otherwise limited, as appropriate.
- Contact and contributions: Point readers to a maintainer or contribution instructions when those routes exist.
- Further reading: Link to detailed user or team documentation instead of copying all of it into the README.
This is a starting point, not a mandatory template. A small project may need only a few clear sections; a package used by others may need more. Google’s broader documentation guidance favors concise, accurate, current docs over a large set of stale or redundant pages: Google Documentation Best Practices.
Why I wrote it after the first version—and the trade-off
Building first gave me a working artifact to describe. That can expose the gap between the original pitch and the implemented behavior: the problem the MVP really solves, the shortest path that succeeds, dependencies or assumptions a user must know, and limits that are easy to overlook when describing a plan.
Rank #2
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The trade-off is that waiting can leave early readers without an explanation, and it can encourage treating documentation as a final polish step. For a project other people need to install, evaluate, or contribute to, a brief README written earlier may be valuable even if it later changes. The available guidance does not prescribe a universal order; choose the sequence that gives your intended readers accurate help when they need it.
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A README written after an MVP is still only accurate at the moment it is written. When code changes alter setup, commands, behavior, requirements, status, or contribution steps, the documentation describing those things may need to change as well. Google recommends updating documentation in the same change as the code it explains, which helps prevent the implementation and instructions from diverging: Google Documentation Best Practices.
Rank #3
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For larger projects, documentation also needs ownership and a process, not just an initial writing session. Google’s documentation maturity checklist includes content, process, and ownership considerations: Google OpenDocs documentation maturity checklist. GitHub likewise describes READMEs as a way to communicate repository expectations, including information relevant to people considering contributions: GitHub Docs: About READMEs.
Quick Recap
Best Value
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- 136 pages
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