diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 159db3e..996ed9c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -8,3 +8,5 @@ export-backup
 original-export-backup
 src
 export
+soli-src.zip
+soli-export.zip
diff --git a/readme.md b/readme.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b3b419
--- /dev/null
+++ b/readme.md
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# prerequisites 
+
+make sure you have downloaded this repository with git 
+```git clone https://git.coopcloud.tech/notplants/soli-mdbook.git```
+
+make sure you have downloaded the outline contents (export and src) into this same directory.
+
+here are the links for for the zip files in nextcloud:
+https://nc.commoninternet.net/s/sE3TJ5ZjwdLdzcy
+
+after downloading the zip files, unzip them, so that there is an additional src and export folder now in this base directory
+
+make sure you have python3 installed 
+
+make sure you have rust installed (https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install), and then you can install mdbook via:
+`cargo install mdbook`
+
+# how does this work 
+
+the export folder downloaded from nextcloud in prerequisites is a raw export of markdown files from outline 
+
+the outline_to_mdbook.py python script converts this folder of markdown from export, into a folder called src, 
+which is the used by mdbook to build the website 
+
+ideally we only modify files inside export and not inside of src directly, so that builds are repeatable,
+and we don't have any manual changes inside of src 
+
+# build
+
+to build the mdbook run the following command in terminal within the directory of this code:
+
+`./build.sh`
+
+then you can navigate to http://0.0.0.0:8000/
+
+and you should see the website 
+
+