readme-best-practices

readme-best-practices is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents. It costs 100 tokens per session (1,648 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide for writing, auditing, and improving GitHub README files, the main project description shown to repository visitors. It covers structure, badges, logos, setup details, features, and project context.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to create or review a README, document installation and features, add status badges, or improve a repository's presentation.
Why use it?
It helps turn scattered project information into documentation that developers can quickly understand and use.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: mentions Claude Code; installed under .agents/ (shared by several agents); mentions AGENTS.md.

Good fit Use it to create or review a README, document installation and features, add status badges, or improve a repository's presentation.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents/readme-best-practices
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents --skill readme-best-practices
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for readme-best-practices

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents/readme-best-practices/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents/readme-best-practices)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents/readme-best-practices"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents/readme-best-practices/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for readme-best-practices

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents/readme-best-practices"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents/readme-best-practices.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 100 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,648 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00100 $0.01648
Opus 5 $0.00050 $0.00824
Sonnet 5 $0.00020 $0.00330
Haiku 4.5 $0.00010 $0.00165

Measured 9d ago against content hash 8cc8edc38112, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

readme-best-practices scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 9d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.agents/skills/readme-best-practices/SKILL.md · 187 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 187 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

README Best Practices (2026)

This skill guides you through creating a best-practice GitHub README.md for 2026, including a custom SVG logo and shields.io badges.

When to Use

  • User asks to "write a README", "improve README", "add badges", or "create a logo"
  • User asks to analyze or audit an existing README.md
  • User wants to make a repository more professional or discoverable
  • User asks about GitHub documentation best practices

Step-by-step workflow

1. Analyze the repository

Before writing anything, gather context:

# Detect tech stack
cat package.json 2>/dev/null | head -20
cat Cargo.toml 2>/dev/null | head -20
cat pyproject.toml 2>/dev/null | head -20
ls -1
find . -name "*.md" -maxdepth 2

Identify:

  • Primary language(s) and tech stack
  • What the project does (one sentence)
  • Key features (5-10 bullet points)
  • Installation method(s)
  • Whether a live demo/deployment exists
  • License type
  • CI/CD system (GitHub Actions workflows)
  • Existing screenshots or assets

2. Create the SVG logo

See references/LOGO.md for the full logo creation guide.

Quick pattern:

  • ViewBox: 0 0 320 80 at width="320"
  • Dark background pill (#0f172a to #1e293b gradient, rx="14")
  • Domain-specific icon on the left
  • Project acronym in indigo→cyan gradient (#6366f1 to #06b6d4)
  • Thin divider line below acronym
  • Full project name as subtitle (#94a3b8)
  • Tech stack chips on the right (colored pills)
  • Save to: assets/logo.svg
  • Reference: <img src="assets/logo.svg" alt="..." width="320"/> in README

Use the template at assets/logo-template.svg as starting point.

3. Write README sections (in order)

Follow this exact section order:

1.  <div align="center"> header block
    - Logo image
    - Project title (h1)
    - One-line tagline (bold) + secondary sentence
    - Shields.io badge row (CI | Release | License | Languages | Demo)
    - Navigation links: Demo · Docs · Report Bug · Request Feature

2.  "Why [project]?" — 3-4 value-proposition bullets

3.  Table of Contents (for READMEs > 100 lines)

4.  Quick Start — copy-paste, zero-config first

5.  Architecture — ASCII or Mermaid diagram if applicable

6.  Features — table: Feature | Description

7.  Installation — per interface/language with fenced code blocks

8.  Configuration — env vars table: Variable | Required | Default | Notes

9.  Usage — per interface with realistic, runnable examples

10. Testing — unit, integration, e2e commands

11. Repository Structure — annotated tree

12. Contributing — numbered steps

13. License

Read the full file on GitHub · 187 lines

Files

What ships with it

6 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 9d ago First seen · 187 lines · 100 tokens per session scan A 8cc8edc38112

Subscribe to this mod's changes

readme-best-practices is a skill published in the GitHub repository d-o-hub/github-template-ai-agents (2 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 100 tokens to every session and 1,648 once invoked, about $0.0005 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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