package-json-to-readme

Generate a README.md from package.json contents. Works with node and io.js.

Why?

Every project worth its salt has a README that answers (at least) the following questions:

• What's it called?
• What is it for?
• How do I install it?
• How do I use it?
• How do I test it?
• What is the license?

With npm modules, most of that info can be gleaned from properties in the package.json file: name, description, scripts.test, preferGlobal, etc. That's why package-json-to-readme exists. Use it to generate a decent boilerplate README, then iterate from there.

Installation

npm i -g package-json-to-readme

Usage

# Write to stdout
readme package.json

# Pipe output into a new file
readme package.json > README.md

# Add a Travis badge
readme package.json --travis

# Run tests and add their output
readme package.json --tests

# Do it all
readme package.json --tests --travis > README.md

# If your package has an example.sh or example.js file, it will be used to
# generate a usage section like this one.

# If your example.js has a require("./") statement, the relative path will be
# replaced with the package name.

Tests

npm install
npm test

Dependencies

• github-url-to-object: Extract user, repo, and other interesting properties from GitHub URLs
• hogan.js: A mustache compiler.
• strip-ansi: Strip ANSI escape codes
• sync-exec: Synchronous exec with status code support. Requires no external dependencies, no need for node-gyp compilations etc.
• yargs: Light-weight option parsing with an argv hash. No optstrings attached.

Dev Dependencies

• mocha: simple, flexible, fun test framework
• nixt: Simple and powerful testing for command-line apps

License

MIT

See Also

• readme-md-generator, a CLI that's able to read your environment (package.json, git config...) to suggest you default answers during the README creation process.
• mos, a pluggable module that injects content into your markdown files via hidden JavaScript snippets.