diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0fe0bb3..84e9dc7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1 +1,43 @@
-We should have a readme but I mostly want to make sure the changes I made to git today didn't break anything.
+# [pronoun.is](http://pronoun.is) is a www site for showing people how to use pronouns
+
+## For users
+
+You can use any pronouns you like simply by filling them into the
+url path. For example, http://pronoun.is/ze/zir/zir/zirs/zirself
+
+That's pretty unwieldy! Fortunately you can also give it only the
+first pronoun or two: http://pronoun.is/she/her or http://pronoun.is/they
+
+Automatically filling in the rest from only one or two forms only
+works for pronouns in the [database](resources/pronouns.tab). If the
+pronouns you or a friend uses aren't supported, please let us know and
+we'll add them. Alternatively you could add them yourself and submit a
+pull request (see the next section for details)
+
+## For developers
+
+### The database
+
+The pronouns "database" is a tab-delimited file with fields and
+example values as follows:
+
+subject|object|possessive-determiner|possessive-pronoun|reflexive
+-------|------|---------------------|------------------|---------
+they   | them | their               | theirs           | themself
+
+If you edit it with a text editor, make sure your editor inputs real
+tab characters in that file (a thing your editor might normally be
+configured not to do!) In Emacs, you can input real tabs by doing
+Ctrl+q <tab>
+
+### Running the app in a dev environment
+
+You can launch the app on your own computer by running the following
+commands:
+
+```
+$ lein uberjar
+$ java -cp target/pronouns-standalone.jar clojure.main -m pronouns.web
+```
+
+Then browse to localhost:5000