diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f9618e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+# Intermediate starter for express _javascript_ apps
+
+This is an intermediate starter template for express apps written in JavaScript (not TypeScript).
+
+It does not use express router.
+
+## Change this README.md file!
+
+If you have used this project as a template, remember to change this readme file to add your own documentation and remove anything you don't need.
+
+## Features
+
+-   EJS template setup with express
+-   connection-pool setup for node-postgres
+-   loads DATABASE_URL from env variable. (And tries to load .env files with dotenv)
+-   static file serving from `/public`
+-   favicon
+-   demo of classless css framework
+-   automated testing with jest
+-   example jest test
+-   formatting with prettier
+-   linting with eslint
+-   live-reload: in development mode, when viewing an html page, if a file is changed and saved, the browser will make the request again. This won't work if the browser is viewing a json output - it needs to be an html page so that live-reload can insert a javascript fragment into it.
+-   .gitignore
+
+## Installation
+
+Install dependencies
+
+`yarn`
+
+## Configuration on dev machine
+
+Copy `.env.example` to `.env` and set DATABASE_URL to your database's connection string.
+
+## Running
+
+Run (in dev mode with live-reload):
+`yarn start:dev`
+
+Run (for production with no live-reload)
+`yarn start`