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Automated README file generator, powered by AI.

Project description

readme-ai-banner-logo

Designed for simplicity, customization, and developer productivity.

github-actions codecov pypi-version pepy-total-downloads license


🔗 Quick Links

  1. Overview
  2. Demo
  3. Features
  4. Getting Started
  5. Configuration
  6. Examples
  7. Contributing

[!IMPORTANT] ✨ Visit the Official Documentation for detailed guides and tutorials.


🔮 Overview

README-AI is a developer tool that automatically generates README markdown files using a robust repository processing engine and advanced language models. Simply provide a URL or path to your codebase, and a well-structured and detailed README will be generated.

Why README-AI?

This tool is designed to streamline the documentation process for developers, saving time and effort while ensuring high-quality README files. Key benefits include:

  • AI-Powered: Leverage language models for intelligent content generation.
  • Consistency: Ensure clean, standardized documentation across projects.
  • Customization: Tailor the output to fit your project's requirements.
  • Language Agnostic: Works with most programming languages/frameworks.
  • Save Time: Generate comprehensive READMEs in less than a minute.

👾 Demo

Running from the command line:

readmeai-cli-demo

Running directly in your browser:

readmeai-streamlit-demo


☄️ Features

  • 🚀 Automated Documentation: Generate comprehensive README files automatically from your codebase.
  • 🎨 Customizable Output: Tailor the styling, formatting, badges, header designs, and more preferences.
  • 🌐 Language Agnostic: Compatible with a wide range of programming languages and project types.
  • 🤖 Multi-LLM Support: Current support for OpenAI, Ollama, Anthropic, Google Gemini.
  • 📑 Offline Mode: Create boilerplate README files offline, without any external API calls.
  • 📝 Best Practices: Ensures clean, professional documentation, adhering to markdown best practices.

Let's take a look at some possible customizations created by readme-ai:

custom-dragon-project-logo
--image custom --badge-color FF4B4B --badge-style flat-square --header-style classic

compact-readme-header
--image cloud --header-style compact --toc-style fold

svg-
--badge-style for-the-badge --header-style svg
ascii-readme-header-style
--header-style ascii
ascii-box-readme-header-style
--header-style ascii_box
readme-header-with-cloud-logo
--align left --badge-style flat-square --image cloud
readme-header-with-gradient-markdown-logo
--align left --badge-style flat --image gradient
custom-balloon-project-logo
--badge-style flat --image custom
readme-header-with-skill-icons-light
--badge-style skills-light --image grey
readme-header-with-blue-markdown-logo
--badge-style flat-square
readme-header-with-black-readme-logo
--badge-style flat --image black
custom-database-project-logo
--image custom --badge-color 00ffe9 --badge-style flat-square --header-style classic
llm-generated-project-logo
--image llm --badge-style plastic --header-style classic
readme-header-style-modern
-i custom -bc BA0098 -bs flat-square -hs modern -ts fold

[!IMPORTANT] Find detailed guides and tutorials for configuring and customizing your README in the Official Documentation.

Next, let's explore the key sections of a typical README generated by readme-ai.

📍 Overview
Overview

◎ High-level introduction of the project, focused on the value proposition and use-cases, rather than technical aspects.

readme-overview-section
✨ Features
Features Table

◎ Generated markdown table that highlights the key technical features and components of the codebase. This table is generated using a structured prompt template.

readme-features-section
📃 Codebase Documentation
Directory Tree

◎ The project's directory structure is generated using pure Python and embedded in the README. See readmeai.generators.tree. for more details.

directory-tree
File Summaries

◎ Summarizes key modules of the project, which are also used as context for downstream prompts.

file-summaries
🚀 Quickstart Instructions
Getting Started Guides

◎ Prerequisites and system requirements are extracted from the codebase during preprocessing. The parsers handles the majority of this logic currently.

getting-started-section-prerequisites
Installation Guide

Installation, Usage, and Testing guides are generated based on the project's dependency files and codebase configuration.

getting-started-section-usage-and-testing
🔰 Contributing Guidelines
Contributing Guide

◎ Dropdown section that outlines general process for contributing to your project.

◎ Provides links to your contributing guidelines, issues page, and more resources.

◎ Graph of contributors is also included.

contributing-guidelines-section
Additional Sections

Project Roadmap, Contributing Guidelines, License, and Acknowledgements are included by default.

footer-readme-section

🛸 Getting Started

System Requirements

  • Python: 3.9+
  • Package Manager/Container: pip, pipx, uv, or docker.

Supported Sources

The following git hosting services are supported for source code retrieval, along with your local file system:

Supported LLM APIs

To enable the full functionality of readmeai, an account and API key are required for one of the following providers:

  • OpenAI: Recommended for general use. Requires an OpenAI account and API key.
  • Ollama: Free and open-source. No API key required.
  • Anthropic: Requires an Anthropic account and API key.
  • Google Gemini: Requires a Google Cloud account and API key.
  • Offline Mode: Generates a boilerplate README without making API calls.

For more information on setting up an API key, refer to the provider's documentation.

⚙️ Installation

Choose your preferred installation method:

 Pip

 pip install readmeai

 Pipx

 pipx install readmeai

[!TIP] Using pipx allows you to install and run Python command-line applications in isolated environments, which helps prevent dependency conflicts with other Python projects.

 Docker

Pull the latest Docker image from the Docker Hub repository.

 docker pull zeroxeli/readme-ai:latest

 From source

Click to expand instructions
  1. Clone the repository:

     git clone https://github.com/eli64s/readme-ai
    
  2. Navigate to the readme-ai directory:

     cd readme-ai
    
  3. Install dependencies:

     pip install -r setup/requirements.txt
    

Alternatively, the project can be setup using the bash script below:

 Bash

  1. Run the setup script:

     bash setup/setup.sh
    

Or, use poetry to build the project:

 Poetry

  1. Install dependencies using Poetry:

     poetry install
    

[!IMPORTANT] To use the Anthropic and Google Gemini clients, additional dependencies are required. See the following installation commands:

  • Anthropic:
     pip install "readmeai[anthropic]"
    
  • Google Gemini:
     pip install "readmeai[google-generativeai]"
    

🤖 Running the CLI

1. Set Up Environment Variables

With OpenAI:

 export OPENAI_API_KEY=<your_api_key>

# Or for Windows users: set OPENAI_API_KEY=<your_api_key>
Additional Providers (Ollama, Anthropic, Google Gemini)
Ollama

Refer to the Ollama documentation for more information on setting up the Ollama API. Here is a basic example:

  1. Pull your model of choice from the Ollama repository:

     ollama pull mistral:latest
    
  2. Start the Ollama server and set the OLLAMA_HOST environment variable:

     export OLLAMA_HOST=127.0.0.1 && ollama serve
    
Anthropic
  1. Export your Anthropic API key:

     export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=<your_api_key>
    
Google Gemini
  1. Export your Google Gemini API key:

     export GOOGLE_API_KEY=<your_api_key
    

2. Generate a README

Run the following command, replacing the repository URL with your own:

 readmeai --repository https://github.com/eli64s/readme-ai --api openai

[!IMPORTANT] By default, the gpt-3.5-turbo model is used. Higher costs may be incurred when more advanced models.

Run with Ollama and set llama3 as the model:

 readmeai --api ollama --model llama3 --repository https://github.com/eli64s/readme-ai

Run with Anthropic:

 readmeai --api anthropic -m claude-3-5-sonnet-20240620 -r https://github.com/eli64s/readme-ai

Run with Google Gemini:

 readmeai --api gemini -m gemini-1.5-flash -r https://github.com/eli64s/readme-ai

Use a local directory path:

readmeai --repository /path/to/your/project

Add more customization options:

 readmeai --repository https://github.com/eli64s/readme-ai \
           --output readmeai.md \
           --api openai \
           --model gpt-4 \
           --badge-color A931EC \
           --badge-style flat-square \
           --header-style compact \
           --toc-style fold \
           --temperature 0.9 \
           --tree-depth 2
           --image LLM \
           --emojis

 Docker

Run the Docker container with the OpenAI client:

 docker run -it --rm \
    -e OPENAI_API_KEY=$OPENAI_API_KEY \
    -v "$(pwd)":/app zeroxeli/readme-ai:latest \
    --repository https://github.com/eli64s/readme-ai \
    --api openai

 From source

Click to expand instructions

 Bash

If you installed the project from source with the bash script, run the following command:

  1. Activate the virtual environment:

     conda activate readmeai
    
  2. Run the CLI:

     python3 -m readmeai.cli.main -r https://github.com/eli64s/readme-ai
    

 Poetry

  1. Activate the virtual environment:

     poetry shell
    
  2. Run the CLI:

     poetry run python3 -m readmeai.cli.main -r https://github.com/eli64s/readme-ai
    

 Streamlit

Try readme-ai directly in your browser, no installation required. See the readme-ai-streamlit repository for more details.


🧪 Testing

The pytest and nox frameworks are used for development and testing.

Install the dependencies using Poetry:

 poetry install --with dev,test

Run the unit test suite using Pytest:

 make test

Run the test suite against Python 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, and 3.12 using Nox:

 make test-nox

[!TIP] Nox is an automation tool that automates testing in multiple Python environments. It is used to ensure compatibility across different Python versions.


🔡 Configuration

Customize your README generation using these CLI options:

Option Description Default
--align Text alignment in header center
--api LLM API service provider offline
--badge-color Badge color name or hex code 0080ff
--badge-style Badge icon style type flat
--header-style Header template style classic
--toc-style Table of contents style bullet
--emojis Adds emojis to the README header sections False
--image Project logo image blue
--model Specific LLM model to use gpt-3.5-turbo
--output Output filename readme-ai.md
--repository Repository URL or local directory path None
--temperature Creativity level for content generation 0.1
--tree-depth Maximum depth of the directory tree structure 2

Run the following command to view all available options:

 readmeai --help

Visit the Official Documentation for more detailed information on configuration options, examples, and best practices.


🎨 Examples

View example README files generated by readme-ai across various tech stacks:

Technology Example Output Repository Description
Readme-ai readme-ai.md readme-ai Readme-ai project
Apache Flink readme-pyflink.md pyflink-poc Pyflink project
Streamlit readme-streamlit.md readme-ai-streamlit Streamlit web app
Vercel & NPM readme-vercel.md github-readme-quotes Vercel deployment
Go & Docker readme-docker-go.md docker-gs-ping Dockerized Go app
FastAPI & Redis readme-fastapi-redis.md async-ml-inference Async ML inference service
Java readme-java.md Minimal-Todo Minimalist todo Java app
PostgreSQL & DuckDB readme-postgres.md Buenavista Postgres proxy server
Kotlin readme-kotlin.md android-client Android client app
Offline Mode offline-mode.md litellm LLM API service

Find additional README examples in the examples directory.


🏎💨 Roadmap

  • Release readmeai 1.0.0 with enhanced documentation management features.
  • Develop Vscode Extension to generate README files directly in the editor.
  • Develop GitHub Actions to automate documentation updates.
  • Add badge packs to provide additional badge styles and options.
    • Code coverage, CI/CD status, project version, and more.

🔰 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read the Contributing Guide to get started.



🎗 License

README-AI is released under the terms of the MIT License.


🙌 Acknowledgments

⬆️ Top


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