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 that’s 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

Serverless functions can also be used to dynamically generate information (for example your current Spotify activity):

Nate Moore

@n_moore

I embedded a @Spotify Now Playing widget in my @github profile README!

It's an SVG rendered on the fly via @vercel serverless function, included in the README via <img> tag.

Supremely over-engineered, but I discovered lots of fun hacks in the process.

github.com/natemoo-re/nat…

14:50 PM - 12 Jul 2020

110 763

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

👋 hiii—if 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.

Comments

[Sarah Price]

I saw someone post theirs the other day with a fun animation. I hadn't realized this was a new feature so I thought they were just joking around. But this is great! I'm going to have to do some brainstorming on mine. Maybe I'll see how much of my design skills I can use in it as well!

[coderjojo]

I have created Developer Profile repository with a bunch of GitHub profiles so that others will get inspiration to create their own. Do consider to contribute with your profile also.

[ItsASine (Kayla)]

Only downside I can see to this is that the README seems meant to be a living document. Mine is a bunch of gifs now, but later I could update it to actually be professional or something and less awesome.

[coderjojo]

You may update it later in the repo also.

[ItsASine (Kayla)]

I see screenshots got added recently, nice! :)

[Ayush Kumar]

My Github.
For more cool templates.

[Jacques Blom]

I've set mine up to automatically pull in my latest uploads from YouTube, using a Netlify Serverless function:
github.com/jacques-blom

[Vadorequest]

Just built mine in 2h time really quickly, with github stats, trophies, SO feed, medium feed, etc.

github.com/Vadorequest

Thanks to github.com/rahuldkjain/github-prof... which helped me bootstrap real quick!

[Rahul Jain]

Tired of updating GitHub profle README with latest features again & again?

If yes, then I have developed a tool to do the same for you in just 1 click 🤓

🚀 Try the tool: live tool

If you find the tool useful, show some love by giving a ⭐ on github repo

rahuldkjain / github-profile-readme-generator

🚀 Generate GitHub profile README easily with the latest add-ons like visitors count, GitHub stats, etc using minimal UI.

GitHub Profile README Generator

View Demo · Report Bug · Request Feature

Loved the tool? Please consider donating 💸 to help it improve!

Tired of editing GitHub Profile README with new features?

This tool provides an easy way to create a GitHub profile readme with the latest add-ons such as visitors count, github stats, etc.

🚀 Demo

Try the tool: GitHub Profile README Generator

🧐 Features

Just fill in the details such as Name, Tagline, Dev Platforms Username, Current Work, Portfolio, Blog, etc. with a minimal UI.

• Uniform Dev Icons

• Uniform Social Icons

• Visitors Counter Badge

• GitHub Profile Stats Card

• GitHub Top Skills

• GitHub Streak Stats

• Dynamic Dev(.)to Blogs (GitHub Action)

• Dynamic Medium Blogs (GitHub Action)

• Dynamic Personal Blogs from RSS Feed (GitHub Action)

• Wakatime Stats contribute

• Buy Me A Coffee button

Click on Generate README to get your README in markdown…

View on GitHub

[Sanchit Bajaj]

It's great and easy to use

[Alen Abraham]

hey, I tried out this.
It's an awesome tool. Nice one mate.

[Joem Elias Sanez]

Great piece. Newbie, but took a friendly first pass at this — bonus CV frontier!

[Arturs Smirnovs]

You inspired me to make my own readme and make this open source project #justforfun that allows you to generate github readme files: arturssmirnovs.github.io/github-pr...

[Elango Sundar]

I have created a repository for awesome github profile aims to collect the all awesome beautiful READMEs profile and make your Profile look good & Inspire other's.

[odalet]

Hi! Do you know if this is also available to organizations?

[Ileriayo Adebiyi]

This feature may be that solution for

• a website (sort of); a win-win for you if you
• write your blogs in markdown, push to GitHub and publish on dev.to,,
• one more thing, custom domain.

Thanks for sharing Monica!

[Harshal Jadhav]

Here's mine which shows your latest medium blogs.

checkout my repo github.com/harshalrj25/mediumblog-... to add medium blogs to your profile.

[Punitkumar Y Harsoor]

I did my own have a look:
Github Profile /punitkmryh

[Shravan Kumar B]

Hi, do check this project, to beautify your profile readme. Star it, if you like it.

GitHub Dynamic Animated Quote Generator

shravan20 / github-readme-quotes

Dynamic quote generator for your GitHub readmes

github-readme-quotes

Dynamic quote generator for your GitHub readmes

Github Readme Quotes

Copy and paste the following markdown content to display the quote.

![Quote](https://github-readme-quotes.herokuapp.com/quote)

Themes

You can display your quote in different themes without any manual customization.

Use ?theme=THEME_NAME parameter as shown below.

![Quote](https://github-readme-quotes.herokuapp.com/quote?theme=dark)

Available Themes

dark, radical, merko, gruvbox, tokyonight, onedark, cobalt, synthwave, highcontrast, dracula

Gotham

Dark

Light Theme

You can explore different themes here.

Feel free to contribute different themes.

Layouts

You can also change the layout of your templates.

Use ?layout=LAYOUT parameter as shown below

![Quote](https://github-readme-quotes.herokuapp.com/quote?theme=dark&layout=socrates)

Layout 1 (Default)

Layout 2 (Socrates)

You can explore different layouts here.

Feel free to contribute different layouts.

Animations

You can also add animations to your templates.

Use ?animation=ANIMATION paramater as shown below

![Quote](https://github-readme-quotes.herokuapp.com/quote?theme=dark&animation=grow_out_in)

Animation 1

You can explore different animations…

View on GitHub

[James George]

I've built a GitHub Action that updates README with the recent activity of a user.

jamesgeorge007 / github-activity-readme

Updates README with the recent GitHub activity of a user

GitHub Activity in Readme

Updates README.md with the recent GitHub activity of a user.

---

Instructions

• Add the comment <!--START_SECTION:activity--> (entry point) within README.md. You can find an example here.

• It's the time to create a workflow file.

.github/workflows/update-readme.yml

name: Update README

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '*/30 * * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Update this repo's README with recent activity

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - uses: jamesgeorge007/github-activity-readme@master
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

The above job runs every half an hour, you can change it as you wish based on the cron syntax.

Please note that only those public events that belong to the following list show up:-

• IssueEvent
• IssueCommentEvent
• PullRequestEvent

You can find an example here.

Override defaults

Use the following input params to customize it for…

View on GitHub

[Puneet Gopinath]

Hey James George, you no longer maintain it. So here is a fork of it to use instead:

Readme-Workflows / recent-activity

Add your recent activity to your profile readme!

Recent Activity

This GitHub Action is a Fork of the original GitHub Activity Readme Action by jamesgeorge007.
Its our goal is to improve the original GitHub Action while also providing new features for the users.

Live Preview

This is an example live preview that is updated every time a commit is pushed using github actions.

Last Updated: Thursday, May 20th, 2021, 3:17:39 PM (GMT)

1. ❗️ Closed issue #5 in Readme-Workflows/recent-activity
2. 🎉 Merged PR #6 in Readme-Workflows/recent-activity
3. 🗣 Commented on #3 in Readme-Workflows/recent-activity
4. ❗️ Closed issue #4 in Readme-Workflows/recent-activity
5. 💪 Opened PR #6 in Readme-Workflows/recent-activity

Settings

The Action currently has the following Settings that you can set through the with option.

Option	Description	Default	Supported Placeholder
GH_USERNAME	The User to get latest activity from	Repository Owner
COMMIT_MSG	The Commit Message to use when updating the README	⚡ Update README with the recent activity
MAX_LINES	How many activities to display	5

…

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