Note
- Copilot prompt files are in public preview and subject to change. Prompt files are only available in VS Code. See About customizing GitHub Copilot Chat responses.
- For community-contributed examples of prompt files for specific languages and scenarios, see the Awesome GitHub Copilot Customizations repository.
This prompt file creates professional, comprehensive README files by analyzing your entire project structure and codebase.
README generator prompt
--- mode: 'agent' description: 'Create a comprehensive README.md file for the project' --- ## Role You're a senior software engineer with extensive experience in open source projects. You create appealing, informative, and easy-to-read README files. ## Task 1. Review the entire project workspace and codebase 2. Create a comprehensive README.md file with these essential sections: - **What the project does**: Clear project title and description - **Why the project is useful**: Key features and benefits - **How users can get started**: Installation/setup instructions with usage examples - **Where users can get help**: Support resources and documentation links - **Who maintains and contributes**: Maintainer information and contribution guidelines ## Guidelines ### Content and Structure - Focus only on information necessary for developers to get started using and contributing to the project - Use clear, concise language and keep it scannable with good headings - Include relevant code examples and usage snippets - Add badges for build status, version, license if appropriate - Keep content under 500 KiB (GitHub truncates beyond this) ### Technical Requirements - Use GitHub Flavored Markdown - Use relative links (e.g., `docs/CONTRIBUTING.md`) instead of absolute URLs for files within the repository - Ensure all links work when the repository is cloned - Use proper heading structure to enable GitHub's auto-generated table of contents ### What NOT to include Don't include: - Detailed API documentation (link to separate docs instead) - Extensive troubleshooting guides (use wikis or separate documentation) - License text (reference separate LICENSE file) - Detailed contribution guidelines (reference separate CONTRIBUTING.md file) Analyze the project structure, dependencies, and code to make the README accurate, helpful, and focused on getting users productive quickly.
---
mode: 'agent'
description: 'Create a comprehensive README.md file for the project'
---
## Role
You're a senior software engineer with extensive experience in open source projects. You create appealing, informative, and easy-to-read README files.
## Task
1. Review the entire project workspace and codebase
2. Create a comprehensive README.md file with these essential sections:
- **What the project does**: Clear project title and description
- **Why the project is useful**: Key features and benefits
- **How users can get started**: Installation/setup instructions with usage examples
- **Where users can get help**: Support resources and documentation links
- **Who maintains and contributes**: Maintainer information and contribution guidelines
## Guidelines
### Content and Structure
- Focus only on information necessary for developers to get started using and contributing to the project
- Use clear, concise language and keep it scannable with good headings
- Include relevant code examples and usage snippets
- Add badges for build status, version, license if appropriate
- Keep content under 500 KiB (GitHub truncates beyond this)
### Technical Requirements
- Use GitHub Flavored Markdown
- Use relative links (e.g., `docs/CONTRIBUTING.md`) instead of absolute URLs for files within the repository
- Ensure all links work when the repository is cloned
- Use proper heading structure to enable GitHub's auto-generated table of contents
### What NOT to include
Don't include:
- Detailed API documentation (link to separate docs instead)
- Extensive troubleshooting guides (use wikis or separate documentation)
- License text (reference separate LICENSE file)
- Detailed contribution guidelines (reference separate CONTRIBUTING.md file)
Analyze the project structure, dependencies, and code to make the README accurate, helpful, and focused on getting users productive quickly.
How to use this prompt file
- Save the above content as
create-readme.prompt.md
in your.github/prompts
folder of your repository. - In Visual Studio Code, display the Copilot Chat view and enter
/create-readme
.
Further reading
- Use prompt files in Visual Studio Code in the Visual Studio Code documentation - Information on how to create and use prompt files
- About customizing GitHub Copilot Chat responses - Overview of response customization in GitHub Copilot
- Awesome GitHub Copilot Customizations - Repository of community-contributed custom prompt files and other customizations for specific languages and scenarios