diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index 7341dfe..e48eb27 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -88,6 +88,25 @@ on fixable CRITICALs if you ever want a gate.
 Renovate already keeps the digest pins moving, so the usual fix for a finding
 is to let it bump the image, not to hand-edit a tag.
 
+## Agent tooling
+
+`.claude/` is checked in, so every agent working here starts from the same
+setup:
+
+- **`agents/stack-consistency-reviewer.md`** — reviews a diff for convention
+  drift across the stacks. With this many near-identical Compose files, drift is
+  the failure mode, not bugs.
+- **`skills/new-stack/`** — scaffolds a stack and its central backup wiring from
+  `templates/`. It carries `disable-model-invocation: true`, so it runs only
+  when a person asks for it by name.
+- **`skills/backup-preflight/`** — the bind-mount path preflight, before
+  deploying a backup change.
+- **Hooks** (`settings.json`): a PreToolUse hook refuses to edit a real `.env` —
+  those are gitignored, so the edit would be invisible and unshippable; edit the
+  `.env.example` instead. A PostToolUse hook runs
+  `hooks/validate-compose.sh` on whatever was just written, so a broken Compose
+  file surfaces at the edit rather than at `make check`.
+
 ## Compose stack conventions
 
 - Each application stack lives in its own directory under `eggenberg-services/<stack>/`.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2e2c05c..9fb4896 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,6 +1,25 @@
 # docker-stack
 
-Services live in separate Compose stacks under `eggenberg-services/`.
+Services live in separate Compose stacks under `eggenberg-services/`, deployed
+to TrueNAS through Dockhand. Central backups live in `infrastructure/`.
+
+There is no build step and no application code here — the whole repository is
+Compose files, `.env.example` files and the scripts that check them.
+
+## Getting started
+
+```bash
+make tools    # install the pinned toolchain from mise.toml
+make hooks    # install the git pre-commit hooks, once
+make check    # what a PR needs: hooks + compose config + conventions
+```
+
+`make help` lists every target. Day to day: `make stacks` lists them,
+`make config STACK=jellyfin` prints a stack's fully resolved Compose config,
+and `make up|down|restart|pull|logs STACK=<name>` operate on one.
+
+**Tool versions live in `mise.toml` and nowhere else**, and CI installs from the
+same file — so a hook that passes locally passes in CI.
 
 ## Services
 
@@ -50,3 +69,40 @@ Before deploying backup changes, run `infrastructure/volume-backup/check-backup-
 - Add a dedicated `<stack>_backup` service to `infrastructure/volume-backup/docker-compose.yaml` that mounts the stack directory read-only under `/backup/<stack>_stack` and writes archives to `${BACKUP_ROOT}/<stack>/`
 - Add `<STACK>_STACK_HOST_PATH` to `infrastructure/volume-backup/backup.env.example`
 - Define an explicit default network named `<stack>_network`, replacing hyphens with underscores
+
+## Checks
+
+`make check` is the whole local gate, and it is what a pull request runs:
+
+| Step | What it catches |
+| --- | --- |
+| `make lint` | yamlfmt, shellcheck/shfmt, gitleaks, and `actionlint` + `zizmor` over the workflows |
+| `make validate` | `docker compose config` per stack — an interpolation or schema error before it reaches the host |
+| `make conventions` | `scripts/check-stack-conventions.sh`: the `<stack>_network` naming rule and `.env.example` coverage for every variable a Compose file reads |
+
+`.env.example` coverage is the one worth calling out: a variable referenced in a
+Compose file but missing from `.env.example` deploys fine on the host that
+already has it set and fails for everyone else. The check exists because that
+happened.
+
+One required check gates a merge: **`pre-commit`**. The image CVE sweep
+(`scan.yml`) is deliberately not required — it is path-filtered and advisory,
+and a required check that does not run on every pull request blocks the merge
+for good. It runs weekly and answers "which of my services is currently
+exposed"; a new upstream CVE in somebody else's image is not something a commit
+here can fix. `make scan` runs the same sweep locally, `make scan-strict` fails
+on fixable criticals.
+
+## Agent tooling
+
+`.claude/` is checked in: a `stack-consistency-reviewer` agent for diffs, a
+`new-stack` skill that scaffolds all five pieces listed above from templates, a
+`backup-preflight` skill, and two hooks — one refuses to edit a real `.env`
+(they are gitignored, so the edit would be invisible), the other validates a
+Compose file as soon as it is written. [`AGENTS.md`](AGENTS.md) is the detailed
+guide.
+
+## License and security
+
+MIT ([`LICENSE`](LICENSE)). To report a vulnerability, see
+[`SECURITY.md`](SECURITY.md) — please do not open a public issue for one.