┌──────────────────────────────────┐
  │  unREADME                        │
  │  the README you never wrote.     │
  └──────────────────────────────────┘

Drop unreadme in any repo. It reads your source code and generates a professional README.md in seconds — powered by Claude.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• An Anthropic API key — get one free at console.anthropic.com

API key setup

unREADME needs your Anthropic API key to call Claude. Set it once and it works everywhere:

# Add to your shell profile (recommended — works in every directory)
echo 'export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key_here' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Alternatively, put it in a .env file inside the repo you're documenting:

echo 'ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key_here' > .env

Never commit your API key. Make sure .env is in your .gitignore.

Installation

# No install — run directly with npx
npx unreadme

# Or install globally
npm install -g unreadme

Usage

# Generate README for the current directory
unreadme

# Generate README for a different repo
unreadme --dir ~/projects/my-app

# Preview the diff before writing
unreadme --preview

# Print to stdout only, don't write the file
unreadme --dry-run

# Skip if README.md already exists
unreadme --no-overwrite

# Change the writing style
unreadme --persona minimal      # shortest possible README
unreadme --persona opinionated  # confident, active voice
unreadme --persona standard     # default: professional and complete

How it works

1. Scans your repo and picks the most informative files (respects a ~60k character token budget)
2. Reads git metadata — branch, recent commits, remote URL, detected language
3. Sends everything to Claude as structured context
4. Streams the generated README back and writes it to README.md

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. Open an issue first for any significant changes.

License

MIT