project-readme-craft — get a stranger to a working result, fast

Use this skill to create or improve a project README for someone who needs to install, evaluate, run, test, and decide whether to adopt the project — quickly, then successfully. The README's job is to move a stranger from "what is this and should I care" to one working result with the least friction, then route them to deeper docs. It should be accurate, operational, and specific to the repository in front of you.

⚠️ Critical Constraints

• Lead with what-it-is + why in the first two lines — never with history. Why: readers decide in seconds whether to keep reading; opening with project lore loses them before the value lands.
  • WRONG: # acme then This project started in 2024 as a weekend experiment...
  • CORRECT: # acme then > Convert CSV to typed Parquet in one command. No config.