A great README file helps your project to stand out from the sea of open-source software on GitHub. In this article I go over the key elements every README for an open-source project should contain. It also includes a README.md template for use in your own projects.

Developers release new open-source projects on GitHub every day. As a result it’s becoming more and more difficult to get your own project to stand out from the sea of open-source software. However you can do a few things to increase your chances of grabbing other developers attention. One effective and simple technique is putting up a nice-looking and helpful README file.

Let’s get started! Here’s what your README should contain: