[thesprockee]

PR 3 of 3 of Spritz's order (after #8 and #14). Closes #12.

What

README.md rewritten for authors, in plain words, from the signing design's author-facing section: before you submit, submitting, what happens next (approval gives an EchoTools copy; PR to the copy, maintainer review, tag, draft, signing, publish, launcher picks it up), how long it takes, what you get back, what players see, testing your own builds. Pull-a-version and the label table are kept.

Where it says less than the design

• Rolling out. The EchoTools copy and signing are not switched on for any mod yet, so the README says they are being switched on mod by mod, that the approval comment says which applies, and that until then a release of the author's own repo reaches the launcher by itself, as before. It does not claim signing is live.
• Timing. "Minutes for builds, same day to a few days for review and signing, first submission longest" is the design's expectation, not a measurement. The one measured number: the last real submission check (run on xinput-fix #7, 2026-10-24) took 56 s.
• Media and credits. The README tells authors to put screenshots, a video link and credits in the issue text; the form has no fields for them yet (Submission form collects media and credits #13).
• The AGENTS.md link at the end points at the file added by ci: AGENTS.md and the pull-request gates #14, so it resolves once ci: AGENTS.md and the pull-request gates #14 is merged.

Added after Spritz's review note

Step 4 of "Before you submit" now says to publish the template's draft release in your own repo before submitting (the check reads published releases only), that this release is the author's and unsigned, and that the signed release is what the EchoTools copy's draft becomes after review.

Commands run

$ python3 -I scripts/gates.py title --title "docs: README for authors: before, submit, what happens next, how long"
{"errors": [], "event": "gate.title", "ok": true, ...}
$ python3 -I scripts/gates.py commits --base origin/main --head HEAD     # gates.py from #14
{"base": "origin/main", "commits": 1, "errors": [], "event": "gate.commits", "head": "HEAD", "ok": true}
$ curl -sL -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' <each link in the README>
200 https://github.com/EchoTools/echo-mod-template-repo
200 https://github.com/marshmallow-mia/EchoVR_Launcher
200 https://github.com/EchoTools/echo-mods/issues/new?template=submit-mod.yml
200 https://github.com/EchoTools/echo-mods/issues/new?template=pull-version.yml
$ gh run list --workflow check-submission.yml     # the check's real duration
2026-10-24T19:08:41Z -> 19:09:37Z success

Docs only: no code, no failing-first test applies.

Co-Authored-By: Andrew Bates a@sprock.io