readme-gen

Auto-generate a README.md from your package.json and project structure. Because devs hate writing READMEs.

Run readme-gen in any Node.js project and get a complete, professional README instantly. It reads your package.json for metadata and scans your directory structure to produce a well-formatted document.

Installation

# npm
npm install -g readme-gen-cli

# yarn
yarn global add readme-gen-cli

# pnpm
pnpm add -g readme-gen-cli

Usage

# Preview README (prints to stdout)
readme-gen

# Write to file
readme-gen -o README.md

# Overwrite existing README
readme-gen -o README.md --force

# Generate a shorter version
readme-gen --minimal

# Run against a different directory
readme-gen /path/to/project

What It Generates

The generated README includes:

• Title + badges from package name, version, and license
• Description from package.json
• Installation section with npm, yarn, and pnpm commands
• Usage section -- CLI usage if bin is defined, or require() example for libraries
• Available Scripts table from package.json scripts
• Project Structure -- tree-like view of your project (respects .gitignore)
• Dependencies tables (production and development, separated)
• License section with copyright
• Contributing boilerplate with fork/PR workflow

Use --minimal to skip the table of contents, project structure, and contributing sections.

Options

-o, --output <file>   Write output to a file (default: stdout)
--force               Overwrite existing file
--minimal             Generate a shorter, minimal README
-h, --help            Show help

Example Output

Running readme-gen in a project produces markdown like:

# my-awesome-tool

![Version](https://img.shields.io/badge/version-2.1.0-blue) ![License](...)

> A tool that does awesome things

## Installation

npm install -g my-awesome-tool

## Usage

my-awesome-tool --help

## Available Scripts

| Script | Command |
| ------ | ------- |
| npm run build | tsc |
| npm run test | jest |

## Project Structure

my-awesome-tool/
|-- src/
|   |-- index.ts
|   |-- utils.ts
|-- bin/
|   |-- cli.js
|-- package.json
|-- tsconfig.json

## Dependencies
...

Zero Dependencies

This tool has no dependencies. It uses only Node.js built-in modules (fs, path). Install it and it just works.

License

MIT -- Tate Lyman