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The README is a project's front door. Open any repo on GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket and the README is automatically displayed beneath the file listing. A good one tells a visitor in 30 seconds: what this project does, who it's for, how to install it, how to use it, and where to go for more help. Without a good README, even excellent code goes unused — nobody installs what they can't figure out.
Most READMEs are written in Markdown (README.md) because every code-hosting platform renders Markdown automatically — headings become big, code blocks get syntax highlighting, links work. Plain-text READMEs (just `README` with no extension, common in older Unix projects) still work but render as a wall of monospace. The conventional structure: project title and one-line description, badges (build status, version, license), short example, installation instructions, usage examples, link to full docs, contributing guidelines, license.
GitHub elevates the README beyond a single file. Putting a README.md in a repo named after your username (github.com/yourname/yourname) creates a profile README that displays on your GitHub profile. Putting one in `.github/profile/` for an organisation does the same thing. Within a project, GitHub looks for README files at the root and inside any directory, so you can have a top-level README plus per-folder READMEs documenting subdirectories. The casing and extension are flexible — `README`, `README.md`, `Readme.md`, `readme.txt` all work — but uppercase README.md is the strongest convention.
* Renders Markdown automatically