diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 455107c..ed8842d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -87,15 +87,90 @@ NOTE: If you're using Visual Studio Code, the [Prettier
 extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=esbenp.prettier-vscode)
 will apply code style on save.
 
-## Releasing, Github Actions, and publishing to NPM
+## Commit messages
+
+Commits to this codebase should follow the [conventional
+commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0/) format:
+
+```
+<type>[<scope>]: <short summary>
+  │       │             │
+  │       │             └─⫸ Summary in present tense. Not capitalized. No period at the end.
+  │       │
+  │       └─⫸ Commit Scope: optional short phrase of scope
+  │
+  └─⫸ Commit Type: build|ci|docs|feat|fix|perf|refactor|test
+
+[optional body]
+
+[optional footer(s)]
+```
+
+The `<type>` should be one of the types specified by the [Angular Commit Message
+Format](https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#-commit-message-format):
+
+- `build`: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies.
+- `ci`: Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts (semantic-release, GitHub Actions).
+- `docs`: Documentation only changes.
+- `feat`: A new feature.
+- `fix`: A bug fix.
+- `perf`: A code change that improves performance.
+- `refactor`: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature.
+- `test`: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests.
 
-The [`.release.json`](.release.json) file contains configuration information for the [semantic-release](https://github.com/semantic-release/semantic-release).
+The `<description>` should be a sentence describing the change (capitalized
+first word, trailing punctuation).
 
+For example, if you fixed a bug in the way `reaction events are handled`, your
+commit message might look like this:
+
+```sh
+git commit -m "fix: correct reaction event handling"
 ```
-npx semantic-release
+
+Our release process uses these commit messages to determine the next version
+number and to automatically generate the release `CHANGELOG.md` file. So it's
+important that your commit messages are clear and meaningful.
+
+## Releasing, Github Actions, and publishing to NPM
+
+New releases are made by merging the `dev` branch into `main`, once you do this,
+the workflow for releasing is triggered in github:
+`.github/workflows/release_workflow.yaml`. The two key secret variables used for
+the release are `GH_TOKEN=...` which has a github personal access token with
+permissions as specified in the `release_workflow.yaml`; and `NPM_TOKEN=...`
+which has the npmjs.com token that allows writing to the [`ts-llmt`
+npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/ts-llmt)
+
+The release workflow uses
+[semantic-release](https://github.com/semantic-release/semantic-release) to
+actually do the release; the config file for relasing is:
+[`.release.json`](.release.json). Note that the semantic release configuration
+uses
+[@semantic-release/commit-analyzer](https://github.com/semantic-release/commit-analyzer)
+to look at commit messages (which are assumed to be formatted according to
+[convensional commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0/)) and
+figure out how to change semantic version numbers. This is basically, +1.0.0
+(and reset to M.0.0) for Major non-backward compatible changes; +0.1.0 and reset
+to M.F.0 for Feature addition changes that are backward compatible, and +0.0.1
+for Bugfixes. The semantic-release flow also closes bugs, makes a github
+release, and adds labels to pull requests on github. Lots of stuff you might
+otherwise try and do by hand.
+
+You can manually run `npx semantic-release` from the `main` github branch.
+You'll first need to locally set `GH_TOKEN=...` and `NPM_TOKEN=...`
+appropriately.
+
+But the basic thing this does is just run some npm releasing commands, namely:
+
+```sh
+npm publish
 ```
 
-There are two github workflows defined in this project in:
+So in a pinch, you can just update versions manually, and run that to deploy.
+
+Note there are two github workflows defined in this project in:
 
 - `.github/workflows/dev_workflow.yaml`: triggered for every pull request
-- `.github/workflows/release_workflow.yaml`: tiggered on every merge into the main branch (which is intended to indicate that we should be making a relase).
+- `.github/workflows/release_workflow.yaml`: tiggered on every merge into the
+  main branch (which is intended to indicate that we should be making a relase).