diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
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--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -39,3 +39,4 @@ CMakeUserPresets.json
 
 # CMake files generated by VSCode
 .cache/*
+.build/*
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+
+# Simple gRPC demo
+
+Welcome to this simple gRPC test project.
+In this repository you will find a minimal example for using gRPC. To keep the footprint low,
+certain dependencies are expected to already be present on the system you are compiling this on.
+
+These are:
+- gRPC itself (be aware of potential consequences of installing gRPC globally; installation through a package manager or into a custom install location are recommended; see root CMakeLists.txt to configure a custom location)
+- Abseil (required by gRPC)