diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index a3e737a85..92defc3f3 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 history.txt
+/target
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5c7e39094
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Engine-q
+
+Engine-q is a smaller project to reimplement some of the core functionality in Nushell. It's still in an alpha state, and there is still a lot to do: please see TODO.md