commit b2ed41c54919523cdc4387eba54e2672a9b38afa
Author: Alex Clarke <alex.j.tusa@gmail.com>
Date:   Fri Feb 16 17:35:31 2024 -0700

    Initial Commit

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b178a40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+# Dynanmic, Reactive Alerting API (Proof-of-Concept)
+
+This project is a proof-of-concept API for a dynamic, reactive alerting system.
+It consists of four different modules that comprise the overall functionality of the project.
+
+* amqp
+* api
+* batch
+* persistence
+
+*Note that the notification component is not part of this proof-of-concept*
+
+## Architecture
+![alerting architecture](./alerting-architecture.png)
+
+## Getting Started
+
+1. Clone the project. `git clone git@github.com:Dark-Alex-17/alerting-poc.git`
+2. Open the `alerting-poc` folder with IntelliJ. Use auto-import for a Gradle
+   project.
+   
+## Running the POC
+### Start the persistence tier
+The persistence tier will start up the in-memory H2 database. Once started,
+Flyway will populate the database with the alerting schema and test data, and also
+the default Quartz schema.
+
+Once H2 is up and running, a TCP server is started on port 9091 so other applications 
+can use the database.
+
+The H2 browser console is available at http://localhost:8081/h2-console
+
+#### Start the Persistence Layer
+
+`./gradlew persistence:bootRun`
+
+### Start the batch worker
+The batch worker is what picks up messages from RabbitMQ and then schedules, and executes Quartz jobs.
+
+The worker also creates the appropriate exchanges, queues, bindings, and all consumers.
+
+`./gradlew batch:bootRun`
+
+### Start the Alerting API
+The API is how users provision alerts and recipients, and all data is persisted to the H2 database.
+
+Additionally, all operations send a message to RabbitMQ to provision and schedule Quartz jobs in the 
+batch worker.
+
+The API is available at http://localhost:8080/poc/alerting/v1/
+
+The OpenAPI spec is available [here](docs/AlertingApi.yaml).
+
+`./gradlew api:bootRun`
+
+## Built With
+
+* [Kotlin](https://kotlinlang.org) - Primary language
+* [Spring Boot](https://projects.spring.io/spring-boot/) - Web framework
+* [Spring Data](https://spring.io/projects/spring-data-jpa) - JPA data access abstraction
+* [Spring AMQP](https://spring.io/projects/spring-amqp) - Asynchronous message communication library
+* [Apache Commons](https://commons.apache.org/) - Boilerplate code library
+* [Lombok](https://projectlombok.org/) - Boilerplate Java code generator
+* [Hibernate](https://hibernate.org/) - Persistence framework
+* [Quartz Scheduler](http://www.quartz-scheduler.org/) - Job scheduling and execution framework
+* [H2 Database](https://www.h2database.com/html/main.html) - In-memory prototype database
+* [Flyway](https://flywaydb.org/) - Database Version Control
+* [RabbitMQ](https://www.rabbitmq.com/) - Asynchronous Message Broker
+* [Gradle](https://gradle.org/) - Dependency management
\ No newline at end of file