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+# Creating a New Builder for jupyter-repo2docker
+
+## Overview
+
+Repo2Docker uses [s2i][] to turn a git repository into a Docker image. The
+image:
+
+- may be used with Jupyter notebooks, including via JupyterHub
+- includes the contents of the source git repo
+
+This process is handled via an [s2i][] **builder**. A builder contains two
+components:
+
+1. the **s2i builder image**, which turns GitHub repos into docker images
+2. the **BuildPack object** in `repo2docker/detectors.py`, which detects
+   which builder to use based on the source repo contents, and then invokes
+   the appropriate, matching builder image
+
+[s2i]: https://github.com/openshift/source-to-image/blob/master/docs/builder_image.md
+
+
+## Making a new s2i builder
+
+1. Choose a name for a new builder, `buildername`. Typically, the `buildername`
+   will correspond to a package manager name.
+
+   For example, let's choose `npm` as the `buildername`.
+
+2. To get started creating a builder, run the `s2i create` command. From the
+  `s2i-builders` directory, run:
+
+    ```bash
+    s2i create jupyterhub/repo2docker-{buildername} {buildername}
+
+    # Example `s2i create` command where {buildername} is npm
+    s2i create jupyterhub/repo2docker-npm npm
+    ```
+
+3. To build the image, in the newly created `s2i-builders/{buildername}`
+   directory (or `s2i-builders/npm` directory for the example), run:
+
+    ```bash
+    make
+    ```
+
+    This step creates a `Dockerfile`.
+
+## Modifying the Dockerfile
+
+You can modify your `Dockerfile` and fill out the `docker build`, as you want.
+There are two files that may be edited:
+
+1. **The `Dockerfile` for the builder itself** The `Dockerfile` is used to
+   create the base builder image (e.g. installing the base runtime environment).
+
+2. **The `s2i/bin/assemble` script** The `s2i/bin/assemble` script is run
+when creating each new image from a given repository (e.g. pulling in
+repo-specific dependencies and repo contents).
+
+You can view the existing s2i-builders in this repo for examples to reference.
+
+## Adding the BuildPack
+
+Once you builder image is finished, you need to add a Buildpack to run your
+builds and to make sure that your new builder is used on the appropriate source
+repos.
+
+1. Define your BuildPack class in `detectors.py`. In most cases, you only need
+  to implement two things if you subclass `S2IBuildPack`:
+
+  - the `detect` method to determine whether a repo should choose your
+    BuildPack
+  - setting the `build_image`  attribute, either via config or during the
+    `.detect()` method
+
+2. Finally, to get the builder application to use your BuildPack, add it to
+   the `buildpacks` list in `app.py`.
+
+3. Once everything above is done, you should be able to build a repo by
+   specifying a source repo URL with this command:
+
+   ```bash
+   python -m repo2docker https://github.com/yourname/your-repo
+   ```