How To Create A GitHub Profile README

GitHub recently released a feature that allows users to create a profile-level README to display prominently on their GitHub profile. This article walksthrough how to access this new feature. I'll also be sharing some fun GitHub profiles I've seen so far. I'd love it if you shared yours with me on Twitter @waterproofheart.
The header GIF shows what my README looks like at the time of this writing. You may notice I was recently selected to be GitHub star!

Why READMEs?

The GitHub profile-level README feature allows more content than the profile bio, supports markdown which means you can play around with the content more visually (Did someone say GIFs!?) and the README is significantally more visible as it is placed above pinned repositories and takes up as much space above the fold of the webpage as you like.

A solid README is a core-component of well-documented software and often encourages collaboration by sharing helpful context with contributors. In my opinion, a profile-level README seems like a great extension of a convention a lot of GitHub users are already familiar with. If you're looking to make project-level READMEs more awesome and helpful check out matiassingers/awesome-readme for resources and examples of compelling READMEs.

How do I create a profile README?

The profile README is created by creating a new repository thats the same name as your username. For example, my GitHub username is m0nica so I created a new repository with the name m0nica. Note: at the time of this writing, in order to access the profile README feature, the letter-casing must match your GitHub username.

If you already have a project in a repo-named username/username and are interested in setting up a profile-level README, then I recommend either re-naming that repository or re-purposing the existing project's README based on what makes the most sense in your particular situation.

1. Create a new repository with the same name (including casing) as your GitHub username: https://github.com/new

2. Create a README.md file inside the new repo with content (text, GIFs, images, emojis, etc.)

3. Commit your fancy new README!

   • If you're on GitHub's web interface you can choose to commit directly to the repo's main branch (i.e., master or main) which will make it immediately visible on your profile)

4. Push changes to GitHub (if you made changes locally i.e., on your computer and not github.com)

Fun READMEs

The GitHub README profiles are written in Markdown which means you aren't just limited to texts and links, you can include GIFs and images. Need to brush up on Markdown Syntax? Check out this Markdown Cheatsheet.

Jason Lengstorf

@jlengstorf

hey, check out the new @github profile README! this is a really nice addition I love that we can add some context (and/or nonsense) to our GitHub profiles now

see mine: github.com/jlengstorf

thanks to @cassidoo for the heads up that this went live!

00:45 AM - 09 Jul 2020

66 578

donavon "#BLM" west

@donavon

@waterproofheart It's not as creative as @sudo_overflow's readme, but here's what I came up with. I also plan on adding some text below the image with links to my resume, etc.

14:20 PM - 09 Jul 2020

1 2

Pouya

@saadeghi

Is this how we suppose use github's readme?

06:23 AM - 09 Jul 2020

11 182

If you're really ambitious you can use GitHub actions or other automation like bdougieYO or simonw to dynamically pull data into your README:

Brian Douglas

@bdougieyo

Check it out. I made MySpace but on @github.

github.com/bdougie - My list is power by a GitHub Action workflow

21:19 PM - 10 Jul 2020

56 564

Simon Willison

@simonw

Made myself a self-updating GitHub personal README! It uses a GitHub Action to update itself with my latest GitHub releases, blog entries and TILs github.com/simonw

03:49 AM - 10 Jul 2020

88 689

I'm a huge proponent that folks should maintain a website they have complete ownership over (even if it's a no-code website solution) but this is tempting...

Yuan Tang

@terrytangyuan

I just created my @github profile README as well with a bunch of badges. This is really a brilliant idea. We may no longer need to maintain our personal website. We can write blogs as issues, manage Wiki and task board, free traffic analytics and CI/CD. github.com/terrytangyuan

14:05 PM - 10 Jul 2020

4 42

kathy

@pifafu

hey, so we heard ya & are trying out a thing where you CAN have a readme on your @github profile...
@mikekavouras built it btw! re: twitter.com/pifafu/status/

22:33 PM - 27 May 2020

kathy @pifafu

hiiiif you use @github, i was wondering: what are some of the things you would want others on GitHub to know about you?

1134 6314

I've been inspired by the creative READMEs I've seen so far and am looking forward to seeing all kinds of profiles in the upcoming months.