{"meta":{"title":"Create README","intro":"Generate comprehensive README files for your projects.","product":"GitHub Copilot","breadcrumbs":[{"href":"/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/copilot","title":"GitHub Copilot"},{"href":"/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/copilot/tutorials","title":"Tutorials"},{"href":"/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/copilot/tutorials/customization-library","title":"Customization library"},{"href":"/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/copilot/tutorials/customization-library/prompt-files","title":"Prompt files"},{"href":"/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/copilot/tutorials/customization-library/prompt-files/create-readme","title":"Create README"}],"documentType":"article"},"body":"# Create README\n\nGenerate comprehensive README files for your projects.\n\n> \\[!NOTE]\n>\n> * Copilot prompt files are in public preview and subject to change. Prompt files are only available in VS Code, Visual Studio, and JetBrains IDEs. See [About customizing GitHub Copilot responses](/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/copilot/concepts/prompting/response-customization#about-prompt-files).\n> * For community-contributed examples of prompt files for specific languages and scenarios, see the [Awesome GitHub Copilot Customizations](https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot/blob/main/docs/README.prompts.md) repository.\n\nThis prompt file creates professional, comprehensive README files by analyzing your entire project structure and codebase.\n\n## README generator prompt\n\n```text copy\n---\nagent: 'agent'\ndescription: 'Create a comprehensive README.md file for the project'\n---\n\n## Role\n\nYou're a senior software engineer with extensive experience in open source projects. You create appealing, informative, and easy-to-read README files.\n\n## Task\n\n1. Review the entire project workspace and codebase\n2. Create a comprehensive README.md file with these essential sections:\n   - **What the project does**: Clear project title and description\n   - **Why the project is useful**: Key features and benefits\n   - **How users can get started**: Installation/setup instructions with usage examples\n   - **Where users can get help**: Support resources and documentation links\n   - **Who maintains and contributes**: Maintainer information and contribution guidelines\n\n## Guidelines\n\n### Content and Structure\n\n- Focus only on information necessary for developers to get started using and contributing to the project\n- Use clear, concise language and keep it scannable with good headings\n- Include relevant code examples and usage snippets\n- Add badges for build status, version, license if appropriate\n- Keep content under 500 KiB (GitHub truncates beyond this)\n\n### Technical Requirements\n\n- Use GitHub Flavored Markdown\n- Use relative links (e.g., `docs/CONTRIBUTING.md`) instead of absolute URLs for files within the repository\n- Ensure all links work when the repository is cloned\n- Use proper heading structure to enable GitHub's auto-generated table of contents\n\n### What NOT to include\n\nDon't include:\n- Detailed API documentation (link to separate docs instead)\n- Extensive troubleshooting guides (use wikis or separate documentation)\n- License text (reference separate LICENSE file)\n- Detailed contribution guidelines (reference separate CONTRIBUTING.md file)\n\nAnalyze the project structure, dependencies, and code to make the README accurate, helpful, and focused on getting users productive quickly.\n```\n\n## How to use this prompt file\n\n1. Save the above content as `create-readme.prompt.md` in your `.github/prompts` folder of your repository.\n2. In Visual Studio Code, display the Copilot Chat view and enter `/create-readme`.\n\n## Further reading\n\n* [Use prompt files in Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/customization/prompt-files) in the Visual Studio Code documentation - Information on how to create and use prompt files\n* [About customizing GitHub Copilot responses](/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/copilot/concepts/response-customization) - Overview of response customization in GitHub Copilot\n* [Awesome GitHub Copilot Customizations](https://github.com/github/awesome-copilot/blob/main/docs/README.prompts.md) - Repository of community-contributed custom prompt files and other customizations for specific languages and scenarios"}