You find a great project on GitHub. A self-hosted photo library, a local AI model runner, a tool everyone recommends. Then the README says "just run docker compose up", and you're left wondering which version of Node it needs, whether it works on Windows at all, and why the third step fails.

READMEs are written by people who already know how to run the project. I built gitmanual for everyone else.

The trick

Swap hub for manual in any GitHub link:

github.com/ollama/ollama → gitmanual.com/ollama/ollama

You get a setup manual for that repo, written from its own files, for your system.

What's in a manual

  • Will it work on my device? A yes, maybe or no for your system and chip, with the reasons: release files, Windows and WSL needs, Docker setups, and what the README says it supports.
  • Start here. The best way in for your system: a ready-made download, the maintainers' own guide, a setup script, or GitHub Codespaces.
  • Parts list. Runtimes and versions, package managers, databases and the .env settings you'll need.
  • Assembly steps. Copy-paste commands for macOS, Windows (PowerShell) or Linux, with fixes for the errors people hit most.
  • A setup script. The same steps as one setup.sh or setup.ps1 that stops at the first error and is safe to run again.
  • Did you get it running? Votes per system, so the next person knows what to expect.

The manual itself isn't written by AI. It's read from the repo's files by rules, so it's fast, free, and doesn't make things up.

Still stuck? Ask

Some problems no manual covers: a port already in use, a GPU that isn't detected, an error you've never seen. For those there's GitManual AI Agent. Click Ask about this repo on any manual and ask in plain words.

It answers from that repo's own files, names the file each fact comes from, and flags risky commands (like piping a download into your shell) before you copy them. It's free with a GitHub sign-in, which only tells us who you are, not your repos.

Prefer your own AI? Ask Claude and Ask ChatGPT open a chat with the repo, your system and the manual's steps already filled in.

Other ways in

  • Browser extension. Adds Setup manual and Ask AI buttons to every GitHub repo, next to Star and Fork. Ask AI opens the agent in Chrome's side panel, beside the repo. Get it for Chrome (works in Edge and Brave too).

Ask AI on a GitHub repo opens the side panel, where GitManual AI Agent answers how to install it on macOS

  • For AI assistants. An MCP server at https://gitmanual.com/mcp, so Claude, Cursor and other clients can fetch a setup manual or script. No login needed: 
 claude mcp add --transport http gitmanual https://gitmanual.com/mcp
  • An API. The same facts as JSON at /api/v1/manual?repo=owner/repo.
  • For maintainers. A README badge that sends newcomers straight to your setup steps: 
 [![Setup manual](https://gitmanual.com/owner/repo/badge.svg)](https://gitmanual.com/owner/repo)
  • Lists. Curated lists like self-hosted apps or AI tools that run on your system, each with a manual.

Free and open source

gitmanual is built with Next.js on Vercel, with Turso for storage, and reads repos through the GitHub API. No account, no paywall. The code is MIT licensed: github.com/zainudinnoori/gitmanual, and you can self-host it.

Next time, I'll write about how the AI chat stays at about $0.003 an answer without risking a runaway bill.

Try it on a repo you've been meaning to set up, and tell me in the comments where the manual got it wrong. That feedback is what makes the rules better.