GitHub, Guide

How to create your GitHub profile README

A GitHub profile README is an easy way to add some personality to your GitHub profile overview page. Here's how to create one.

How to create your GitHub profile README

Personalize your GitHub profile page

In the past, your ability to customize your GitHub profile overview page was a bit limited. You could select what repositories you wanted to pin or choose to display your activity overview below your yearly contributions. However, these options didn’t really allow you to express yourself.

With the introduction of the GitHub profile README, you’re able to add some personality to your profile with the full power of Markdown. The new feature is a bit of an Easter egg. It doesn’t seem to have ever been officially announced, though it’s fully documented. It appears to have been released in early July 2020.

If you’d like to set this up for your own profile simply:

  1. Create a repo with the same name as your username
  2. Create a README.md file in that repo’s root
  3. Put some content in it!

The README will then render at the top of your profile page. For more information, see the GitHub documentation on Managing your profile README.

This is my GitHub profile README at the time of writing (layout may differ):

GitHub Stats Top Languages

Check out my GitHub profile page to view the current version.