diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,7 +1,42 @@
 # tszip
-[![Tests](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tszip/actions/workflows/tests.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tszip/actions/workflows/tests.yml) [![codecov](https://codecov.io/gh/tskit-dev/tszip/branch/main/graph/badge.svg)](https://codecov.io/gh/tskit-dev/tszip)
+[![License](https://img.shields.io/github/license/tskit-dev/tszip)](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tszip/blob/main/LICENSE) [![PyPI version](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/tszip.svg)](https://pypi.org/project/tszip/) [![Supported Python Versions](https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/tszip.svg)](https://pypi.org/project/tszip/) [![Docs Build](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tszip/actions/workflows/docs.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tszip/actions/workflows/docs.yml) [![Binary wheels](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tszip/actions/workflows/wheels.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tszip/actions/workflows/wheels.yml) [![Tests](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tszip/actions/workflows/tests.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/tskit-dev/tszip/actions/workflows/tests.yml) [![codecov](https://codecov.io/gh/tskit-dev/tszip/branch/main/graph/badge.svg)](https://codecov.io/gh/tskit-dev/tszip)
 
-Gzip-like compression for [tskit](https://tskit.dev/software/tskit.html) tree sequences.
+Gzip-like compression for [tskit](https://tskit.dev/software/tskit.html) tree sequences. Compression is lossless for supported tskit tree sequences.
 
-Please see the [documentation](https://tskit.dev/tszip/docs/latest/) for more details
-and [installation instructions](https://tskit.dev/tszip/docs/latest/installation.html).
+Please see the [documentation](https://tskit.dev/tszip/docs/stable/) ([latest](https://tskit.dev/tszip/docs/latest/)) for more details
+and [installation instructions](https://tskit.dev/tszip/docs/stable/installation.html).
+
+## Installation
+
+Install from PyPI or conda-forge:
+
+```
+python -m pip install tszip
+# or
+conda install -c conda-forge tszip
+```
+
+## Quickstart
+
+CLI usage:
+
+```bash
+# Compress a .trees file to a .tsz archive
+tszip data.trees
+
+# Decompress back to .trees
+tsunzip data.trees.tsz
+```
+
+Along with the CLI, tszip can be used directly from Python:
+
+```python
+import tskit
+import tszip
+
+ts = tskit.load("data.trees")
+tszip.compress(ts, "data.trees.tsz")  # write compressed archive
+
+restored = tszip.load("data.trees.tsz")  # load handles .tsz archives and plain .trees files
+print(restored.equals(ts))  # True
+```