TL;DR: Your README isn't just documentation. It's your project's first user experience. A clear README helps people understand, trust, and start using your project faster.
Most open source projects don't fail because of bad code.
A few years ago, I thought a good project would naturally attract users if the code was solid enough.
I was wrong.
One of the turning points for me came while contributing to an open-source Python-based project. The project itself was genuinely impressive, with a well-designed codebase and useful API functionality. But when I looked at the repo, I noticed it lacked even a basic README that clearly explained what the project did or how to get started.
