Rewrite the README from a brand-new contributor's point of view
Category: Docs · Updated 2026-09-22 · Tools: Both
Use this when the README has accumulated additions over time and nobody's checked recently whether following it from scratch actually works. Especially useful before onboarding a new contributor or open-sourcing a repo. Small to medium usage.
Full prompt
Read this repository's README as if you'd never seen the codebase before, and actually attempt to follow its setup instructions step by step (install, configuration, running it, running the tests) in a clean environment or by carefully tracing through what each step would require. Note every point where a step is missing, out of date, assumes a tool or credential it doesn't mention, or assumes knowledge a brand-new contributor wouldn't have. Then rewrite the README's quickstart section so someone with no prior context could follow it successfully, keeping any sections that already work fine untouched. Do this on a new branch and show me a diff rather than overwriting silently — don't push.
Tips
- Ask the agent to actually attempt each step rather than just reading and guessing — that's what surfaces the steps that look fine on paper but fail in practice
- Tell it explicitly to leave working sections alone, otherwise a rewrite pass tends to touch everything and makes the diff hard to review
- If your setup needs secrets or external services the agent can't access, have it flag those steps rather than skip them silently
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