diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt
index 43ba58865f..e8a05c1e58 100644
--- a/README.txt
+++ b/README.txt
@@ -1,9 +1,95 @@
 Cassandra is a highly scalable, eventually consistent, distributed, structured 
 key-value store. 
 
+
+Project description
+-------------------
+
 Cassandra brings together the distributed systems technologies from Dynamo 
 and the data model from Google's BigTable. Like Dynamo, Cassandra is 
 eventually consistent. Like BigTable, Cassandra provides a ColumnFamily-based
 data model richer than typical key/value systems.
 
-For more information see http://incubator.apache.org/cassandra
\ No newline at end of file
+For more information see http://incubator.apache.org/cassandra
+
+
+Getting started
+---------------
+
+This short guide will walk you through getting a basic one node cluster up
+and running, and demonstrate some simple reads and writes.
+
+  * tar -zxvf cassandra-$VERSION.tgz
+  * cd cassandra-$VERSION
+  * sudo mkdir -p /var/cassandra/logs
+  * sudo chown `whoami` -R /var/cassandra
+
+Note: The sample configuration files in conf/ determine the file-system 
+locations Cassandra uses for logging and data storage. You are free to
+change these to suit your own environment and adjust the path names
+used here accordingly.
+
+Now that we're ready, let's start it up!
+
+  * bin/cassandra -f
+
+Running the startup script with the -f argument will cause Cassandra to
+remain in the foreground and log to standard out.
+
+Now let's try to read and write some data using the command line client.
+
+  * bin/cassandra-cli --host localhost --port 9160
+
+The command line client is interactive so if everything worked you should
+be sitting in front of a prompt...
+
+  Connected to localhost/9160
+  Welcome to cassandra CLI.
+  
+  Type 'help' or '?' for help. Type 'quit' or 'exit' to quit.
+  cassandra>
+
+As the banner says, you can use 'help' or '?' to see what the CLI has to
+offer, and 'quit' or 'exit' when you've had enough fun. But lets try
+something slightly more interesting...
+
+  cassandra> set Table1.Standard1['jsmith']['first'] = 'John'
+  Statement processed.
+  cassandra> set Table1.Standard1['jsmith']['last'] = 'Smith' 
+  Statement processed.
+  cassandra> set Table1.Standard1['jsmith']['age'] = '42'
+  Statement processed.
+  cassandra> get Table1.Standard1['jsmith']
+  COLUMN_TIMESTAMP = 1241129773658; COLUMN_VALUE = 42; COLUMN_KEY = age;
+  COLUMN_TIMESTAMP = 1241129537336; COLUMN_VALUE = Smith; COLUMN_KEY = last; 
+  COLUMN_TIMESTAMP = 1241129520503; COLUMN_VALUE = John; COLUMN_KEY = first; 
+  Statement processed.
+  cassandra>
+
+If your session looks similar to what's above, congrats, your single node
+cluster is operational! But what exactly was all of that? Let's break it
+down into pieces and see.
+
+  set Table1.Standard1['jsmith']['first'] = 'John'
+       \         \         \        \          \
+        \         \         \_ key   \          \_ value
+         \         \                  \_ column
+          \_ table  \_ column family
+
+Data stored in Cassandra is associated with a column family (Standard1), 
+which in turn is associated with a table (Table1). In the example above,
+we set the value 'John' in the 'first' column for key 'jsmith'.
+
+For more information on the Cassandra data model be sure to checkout 
+http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/CSDR/Data+Model
+
+Wondering where to go from here? 
+
+  * The wiki (http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/CSDR) is the 
+    best source for additional information.
+  * Join us in #cassandra on irc.freenode.net and ask questions.
+  * Subscribe to the Users mailing list by sending a mail to
+    cassandra-user-subscribe@incubator.apache.org
+
+
+
diff --git a/bin/cassandra-cli b/bin/cassandra-cli
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..0ac560fdb7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/cassandra-cli
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+classpath()
+{
+    cassandra_home=`dirname $0`/..
+    classp=$cassandra_home/build/classes
+
+    for j in $cassandra_home/lib/*.jar; do
+        classp=$classp:$j
+    done
+
+    printf $classp
+}
+
+if [ -z $CLASSPATH ]; then
+    jvmargs="-cp `classpath`"
+fi
+
+java $jvmargs org.apache.cassandra.cli.CliMain "$@"
+
+# vi:ai sw=4 ts=4 tw=0 et