June 5, 2025 (Updated April 19, 2026)/1 min read

Create a ReadMe File in Git

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A ReadMe file is a standard place for instructions or documentation that you want to share with people about a repo. Here's how to add a ReadMe file to your Git repo.

Create a ReadMe File

1. Create a file named README.md in the root (based) folder of the Git repo. 2. Add any instructions or documentation that you want to share with others. Use Markdown to format headings, lists, links, etc. Here are some guides for the Markdown syntax:

Daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax
Guides.GitHub.com/features/mastering-markdown

3. When done, commit the changes and push them to the remote repo. GitHub and Bitbucket will display the nicely formatting ReadMe on the project page for the repo.

What is Markdown?

Markdown can be converted into other formats (such as HTML) and has been incorporated into many things. It's the standard format for ReadMe files in Git.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball (daringfireball.net) created Markdown. He says "Markdown is intended to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible. Markdown’s syntax is intended for one purpose: to be used as a format for writing for the web."

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