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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-SA-4.0
+
+About
+=====
+
+This directory contains the FreedomBox Developer Manual. Specifically the
+tutorial for writing new applications and API reference for writing apps for
+FreedomBox. It is kept as part of the main FreedomBox source code with the
+expectation that when the API changes the developer documentation is also
+updated in the same patch set.
+
+Editing the Developer Documentation
+===================================
+
+Setup on Debian
+***************
+
+Install the following Debian packages:
+
+* python3-sphinx
+* python3-sphinx-autobuild
+
+If your preferred text editor doesn't have support for the reStructuredText
+format, you can install a simple desktop application called ReText. It has live
+preview support with split panes.
+
+Viewing changes live in your browser
+************************************
+
+You do not need the virtual machine used for FreedomBox development running to
+edit this documentation.
+
+Run `make livehtml` from the current directory in the host machine. Visit
+http://127.0.0.1:8000 to view the changes live in your browser as you edit the
+.rst files in this directory. Your browser reloads the page automatically each
+time you save an .rst file in the documentation.