docs(readme): what it keeps, the parts, the mcp tools, how to run

README.md

@@ -1,2 +1,45 @@
 # beavergram
-[![AI Slop Inside](https://sladge.net/badge.svg)](https://sladge.net)
+
+A read-only Telegram client that keeps everything. A userbot on your own account logs every incoming message into Postgres, including the ones later deleted or edited, along with media, reactions, presence and stories. A web client reads that archive back, and an MCP server hands it to agents.
+
+Useful on its own: a Telegram where nothing disappears. In the [beaver](https://git.kotikot.com/beaver) setup it is one of the agent's hands - the dispatcher reads chat history by the `chat_id` stored in a person's card.
+
+## What it keeps
+
+- **Messages** with edits as versions and deletions as flags, so a message removed in Telegram is still in the archive with its history.
+- **Media** on disk, content-addressed, with the versions of a replaced photo.
+- **Voice** transcribed through Telegram's own transcription (Premium), queued when the quota runs out.
+- **Presence** as a time series (TimescaleDB), read receipts, stories.
+- **Capture policy** from your Telegram folders with per-chat overrides: channels nothing, groups messages only, private chats everything, by default.
+- **Annotations and watches**: your notes on chats and rules that fire alerts, both yours to write in the web client.
+
+Nothing is ever deleted from the archive.
+
+## Parts
+
+- `backend/` - `userbot` (kurigram, the capture loop and jobs) and `api` (FastAPI: the web API, the MCP server, and the built frontend as static files).
+- `frontend/` - SvelteKit, `adapter-static`; a chat client over the archive: folders, chat list, thread with media, versions and the deleted messages inline, search, stories, presence graphs.
+- `docker-compose.yml` - Postgres with TimescaleDB, `userbot`, `api`; profiles `db,userbot,api`.
+
+## MCP
+
+Read-only: `search_messages_tool`, `list_chats`, `get_chat_history` (with deleted messages included), `get_deleted_messages`, `get_message_versions`, `get_media`, `get_callbacks`, `presence_history`, `get_peer_history`, `get_stories`, `get_annotations`, `list_watches`, `list_alerts`. The one write is `set_watch`. There are no send, edit or delete tools and there will not be.
+
+## Run
+
+```sh
+cp .env.example .env                      # DB__*, STORAGE__ROOT, profiles
+cp backend/.env.example backend/.env      # TG__*, API__*, AUTH__TOKEN
+make session-create                       # log the account in once; the session file stays in backend/sessions
+make migrate upgrade head
+make deploy                               # build the frontend, build and start the containers
+```
+
+The web client and the MCP endpoint are served by `api`; the bearer for both is `AUTH__TOKEN`.
+
+## Develop
+
+```sh
+cd backend && uv sync && uv run ruff check && uvx ty check src
+cd frontend && bun install && bun run dev && bun run check
+```