---
desc: The first-impression route that demonstrates Sirno's documentation principles.
lifecycle: Active
name: README
structural:
  category:
  - meta
  - narrative
  belongs:
  - narrative
  refines:
  - concept-driven-development
  - witness
  - meta
---

The README is the first-impression route for Sirno.

It should state a precise compiler-flavored definition at the top before the mascot image.
The definition should explain `nominal objects` concisely:
each design object is identified first by its *entry* id.

Right after the mascot image, the README should carry a `TL;DR` section.
The `TL;DR` compresses the project model into one short paragraph:
a queryable *lake* of small named *entries* with stable ids, metadata edges,
and *witnesses* back to *repository* artifacts.
It then appends an interactive onboarding invitation,
a `$sirno-narrative-session` prompt grounded in `sirno-docs/introduction.md`,
so a new reader can start a guided route from the top of the page.
The `TL;DR` sits outside the witness comment markers
because it summarizes the design rather than asserting a witnessed claim.

It should make the reader want the project model before it names every mechanism in detail.
The opening pressure is documentation drift:
design begins as a clear explanation,
then scatters across *repository* artifacts and memory.
Sirno answers by giving design a named intermediate form.
The opening motivation is titled `Minute Motivation`.
The phrase is intentionally small and literary.
It frames the section as a brief motive,
not as the full design argument.

The README should demonstrate four principles and ideas.
Its principles section may carry a small Melina allusion from Elden Ring
because the joke makes the invitation memorable without changing the design claim.

- First, Sirno makes documentation compressed and comprehensive through concept-driven development.
  Important ideas become small *entries* whose metadata keeps them connected.
- Second, Sirno lets documentation claims be witnessed by the *repository*.
  The design stays in prose,
  while the evidence stays where the principle is implemented, tested, configured, or generated.
- Third, Sirno lets a project define its own documentation paradigm through `meta` *entries*.
  The method for growing the *lake* can live inside the *lake* itself.
- Lastly, interactive narrative invites the reader into a task-shaped route.
  It closes the principle sequence
  and gives a `$sirno-narrative-session` prompt grounded in `sirno-docs/introduction.md`.

The README should not become the whole design document.
It should give the reader the motivation,
show concrete commands for trying the *lake*,
and point into the *lake* for durable detail.

The *repository witnesses* for this *entry* are hidden Markdown comments in `README.md`.
They mark the motivation and the four principle sections.
