diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6199c18..27912bd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2,6 +2,14 @@
 
 High-level array sharding API for JAX
 
+## Introduction
+
+TODO: Add detailed introduction.
+
+This project originated as a part of the [Mistral 7B v0.2 JAX](https://github.com/yixiaoer/mistral-v0.2-jax) project and has since evolved into an independent project.
+
+This project is supported by Cloud TPUs from Google's [TPU Research Cloud](https://sites.research.google/trc/about/) (TRC).
+
 ## Installation
 
 This library requires at least Python 3.12.
@@ -12,20 +20,24 @@ pip install einshard
 
 ## Usage
 
+For testing purpose, we initialise the JAX CPU backend with 16 devices. This should be run before the actual code (e.g. placed at the top of the script):
+
 ```python
-# initialising JAX CPU backend with 16 devices
 n_devices = 16
 import os
 os.environ['JAX_PLATFORMS'] = 'cpu'
 os.environ['XLA_FLAGS'] = os.environ.get('XLA_FLAGS', '') + f' --xla_force_host_platform_device_count={n_devices}'
+```
 
-# actual code starts here
-from einshard import einshard
+Code:
+
+```python
+import einshard 
 import jax
 import jax.numpy as jnp
 
 a = jnp.zeros((4, 8))
-a = einshard(a, 'a b -> * a* b2*')
+a = einshard.shard(a, 'a b -> * a* b2*')
 jax.debug.visualize_array_sharding(a)
 ```
 
@@ -71,3 +83,15 @@ Build package:
 pip install build
 python -m build
 ```
+
+Build docs:
+
+```sh
+cd docs
+make html
+```
+
+```sh
+cd docs/_build/html
+python -m http.server -b 127.0.0.1
+```
diff --git a/docs/requirements.txt b/docs/requirements.txt
index 0378c0f..7e42a6d 100644
--- a/docs/requirements.txt
+++ b/docs/requirements.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
+jax[cpu]
+
 sphinx
 sphinx-autobuild
 sphinx-autodoc-typehints
 sphinx-book-theme
-
-jax[cpu]
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 7347792..2c3bbe3 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ where = ["src"]
 
 [project]
 name = "einshard"
-version = "0.0.1"
 authors = [
   { name="Ayaka", email="ayaka@mail.shn.hk" },
   { name="Shin", email="shin@yixiaoer.sg" },
@@ -25,7 +24,11 @@ dependencies = [
     "jax",
     "mypy",
 ]
+dynamic = ["version"]
 
 [project.urls]
 Homepage = "https://github.com/ayaka14732/einshard"
 Issues = "https://github.com/ayaka14732/einshard/issues"
+
+[tool.setuptools.dynamic]
+version = {attr = "einshard.__version__"}
diff --git a/src/einshard/__init__.py b/src/einshard/__init__.py
index 0cf6db6..5fe99dc 100644
--- a/src/einshard/__init__.py
+++ b/src/einshard/__init__.py
@@ -1 +1,3 @@
-from .einshard import einshard
+from .einshard import shard, sharding
+
+__version__ = '0.1.0'
diff --git a/src/einshard/einshard.py b/src/einshard/einshard.py
index 18c30d2..5828489 100644
--- a/src/einshard/einshard.py
+++ b/src/einshard/einshard.py
@@ -13,17 +13,17 @@ def _partition_at_ellipsis(lst: list) -> tuple[list, list]:
     r = lst[idx + 1:]
     return l, r
 
-def einshard(arr: Array, expression: str) -> Array:
-    """
-    Shards a :class:`jax.Array` according to a specified pattern, using a human-readable expression similar to that used in einsum notation.
+def sharding(expression: str, *, n_dims: int | None = None) -> NamedSharding:
+    '''
+    Get sharding from einshard expression.
 
     Args:
-        arr (jax.Array): The Array to be processed with tensor parallelism.
-        expression (str): A human-readable expression similar to einsum notation that specifies the sharding pattern.
+        expression (str): The einshard expression.
+        n_dims (int | None): The number of dimensions of the array to be sharded. This argument must be provided if ellipsis is used in the einshard expression.
 
     Returns:
-        Array: The sharded array.
-    """
+        jax.sharding.NamedSharding: The :class:`jax.sharding.Sharding` object corresponding to the given expression.
+    '''
     n_devices = jax.device_count()
 
     res = parse_expression(expression, 0)
@@ -36,8 +36,10 @@ def einshard(arr: Array, expression: str) -> Array:
     n_right_ellipses = sum(element_right is ... for element_right in elements_right)
     assert n_left_ellipses == n_right_ellipses and n_left_ellipses <= 1
 
-    if n_left_ellipses > 0:  # == 1
-        n_dims = len(arr.shape)
+    if n_left_ellipses == 0:
+        assert n_dims == len(elements_left)
+    else:  # == 1
+        assert n_dims is not None
         n_dims_elided = n_dims - len(elements_left) + 1
         axis_names_for_left_augmented = [f'?{i}' for i in range(n_dims_elided)]
         axis_names_for_right_augmented = [(identifier, 1, False) for identifier in axis_names_for_left_augmented]  # 1: `sharding_number`, False: `is_proportional`
@@ -81,5 +83,20 @@ def einshard(arr: Array, expression: str) -> Array:
 
     devices = mesh_utils.create_device_mesh(mesh_shape)
     mesh = Mesh(devices, axis_names=axis_names)
-    arr = jax.make_array_from_callback(arr.shape, NamedSharding(mesh, P(*partition_spec)), lambda idx: arr[idx])
+    sharding_ = NamedSharding(mesh, P(*partition_spec))
+    return sharding_
+
+def shard(arr: Array, expression: str) -> Array:
+    '''
+    Shards a :class:`jax.Array` according to the given einshard expression.
+
+    Args:
+        arr (jax.Array): The array to be sharded.
+        expression (str): The einshard expression.
+
+    Returns:
+        jax.Array: The sharded array.
+    '''
+    sharding_ = sharding(expression, n_dims=len(arr.shape))
+    arr = jax.make_array_from_callback(arr.shape, sharding_, lambda idx: arr[idx])
     return arr
diff --git a/tests/test_einshard.py b/tests/test_einshard.py
index 19810e1..e448a5f 100644
--- a/tests/test_einshard.py
+++ b/tests/test_einshard.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 from jax import Array
 import jax.numpy as jnp
 
-from einshard import einshard
+import einshard
 
 def set_device_count(n: int) -> None:
     os.environ['JAX_PLATFORMS'] = 'cpu'
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ def assert_equal(a, b):
 def invoke_test(spec) -> None:
     set_device_count(spec['n_devices'])
     a = jnp.zeros(spec['shape'])
-    a = einshard(a, spec['expr'])
+    a = einshard.shard(a, spec['expr'])
     assert_equal(get_shard_shape(a), spec['ans'])
 
 def main() -> None: