ai-readme-gen

Generate professional README.md and documentation for any project — using AI or smart heuristics without any API key.

Features

• Works without any API key — uses template + heuristics by default
• Optional AI enhancement via ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY
• Detects: Node.js, Go, Rust, Python and more
• Generates: README, API docs, CONTRIBUTING guide, CHANGELOG
• Three styles: minimal, standard, detailed
• Extracts exports, env vars, scripts, badges automatically

Installation

npm install -g ai-readme-gen
# or use directly with npx
npx ai-readme-gen .

Usage

# Generate README for current directory
npx ai-readme-gen .

# Specify output file
npx ai-readme-gen ./my-project -o README.md

# Generate API docs
npx ai-readme-gen . --type api

# Generate CHANGELOG
npx ai-readme-gen . --type changelog

# Generate CONTRIBUTING guide
npx ai-readme-gen . --type contributing

# Minimal style (less sections)
npx ai-readme-gen . --style minimal

# Detailed style (includes full API surface)
npx ai-readme-gen . --style detailed

# Preview without writing file
npx ai-readme-gen . --dry-run

# Overwrite existing file
npx ai-readme-gen . --overwrite

# Disable AI even if API key is set
npx ai-readme-gen . --no-ai

AI Enhancement

Set an environment variable to enable AI-enhanced descriptions:

# Using Anthropic Claude
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-... npx ai-readme-gen .

# Using OpenAI
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-... npx ai-readme-gen .

Without an API key, the tool still generates high-quality documentation using:

• Detected tech stack and framework
• Extracted exports and function signatures
• Scripts from package.json / go.mod / Cargo.toml
• Env vars from .env.example and source scanning

Supported Project Types

| Type | Detection | |------|-----------| | Node.js / TypeScript | package.json | | Go | go.mod | | Rust | Cargo.toml | | Python | pyproject.toml, requirements.txt | | Generic | Source file extensions |

Configuration

No config file needed. All options are CLI flags.

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | --type | readme | Document type: readme, api, contributing, changelog | | --style | standard | Style: minimal, standard, detailed | | -o, --output | auto | Output file path | | --overwrite | false | Overwrite existing file | | --dry-run | false | Print to stdout instead of writing | | --no-ai | false | Disable AI even if API key is present |

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT © 2024 Contributors