diff --git a/.changeset/get-started-doc.md b/.changeset/get-started-doc.md
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+---
+"kit": minor
+---
+
+docs: export the getting-started guide via the new `docs` package. A new
+author-facing `docs/get-started.md` (terminal-first, hard-wrapped at <=76
+columns) covers the quickstart (`shellcade-kit new` / `check` / `play`),
+publishing to the public games catalog, and linking GitHub over SSH. The
+new `docs` package embeds it as `docs.GetStarted` so the shellcade arcade
+can render it directly in its "Add your own game" screen.
diff --git a/docs/docs.go b/docs/docs.go
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+// Package docs embeds the author-facing getting-started guide so the
+// shellcade arcade can render it directly in its "Add your own game"
+// screen — a glamour-rendered Markdown pane inside an 80x24 SSH TUI.
+//
+// Because of that 80x24 budget, get-started.md is authored terminal-first:
+// prose is hard-wrapped at <=76 columns and avoids HTML, images, and wide
+// tables. Keep it that way when editing — anything wider clips or wraps
+// badly in the pager.
+package docs
+
+import _ "embed"
+
+// GetStarted is the rendered-ready Markdown of the author getting-started
+// guide (get-started.md), embedded at build time.
+//
+//go:embed get-started.md
+var GetStarted string
diff --git a/docs/get-started.md b/docs/get-started.md
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+# Get started with shellcade
+
+A shellcade game is a small WebAssembly plugin that draws to a fixed
+80x24 terminal canvas. You write it in Go (or Rust) against this kit,
+test it locally with no wasm and no network, compile it to wasm, and
+submit the artifact — the arcade hosts it sandboxed and reachable over
+SSH at shellcade.com.
+
+## Quickstart
+
+Install the one author tool, `shellcade-kit` (scaffold, verify, play).
+On macOS, use Homebrew:
+
+    brew install shellcade/tap/shellcade-kit
+
+<details>
+<summary>Manual download (Linux / Windows / no brew)</summary>
+
+Grab a build for your platform from this repo's Releases:
+
+    https://github.com/shellcade/kit/releases
+
+(macOS downloads may be quarantined:
+`xattr -d com.apple.quarantine shellcade-kit` clears it. The brew cask
+strips this for you.)
+
+</details>
+
+Scaffold a game and play it in your terminal — the inner loop is a plain
+Go program (debugger, prints, sub-second builds), no wasm required:
+
+    shellcade-kit new mygame
+    cd mygame && go mod tidy && go run .
+
+Edit `main.go`, run `go run .` again, and you are iterating. When you
+want the real artifact, build the wasm and check it against the same
+gate the arcade runs, then play that artifact on the production engine:
+
+    shellcade-kit check game.wasm
+    shellcade-kit play game.wasm
+
+`check` passing locally is the arcade's acceptance bar — same code, same
+verdict. Multiplayer testing is hot-seat: pass `--seats N` to join N
+players to one room and Ctrl-T to switch the seat your keyboard drives.
+
+Prefer Rust? `shellcade-kit new --rust mygame` scaffolds the same game
+shape on the Rust SDK; the mental model carries over one for one.
+
+## Publish your game
+
+Games live in the public catalog at github.com/shellcade/games. To ship:
+
+1. Build your wasm and confirm `shellcade-kit check game.wasm` is green.
+2. Open a pull request that adds your game to the catalog.
+3. When the PR is merged it cuts a release of your game.
+4. An operator reviews the release and takes it live in the arcade.
+
+Every game in the catalog is conformance-green, so the check gate is the
+bar both for your PR and for going live. Read a complete, published game
+to learn the patterns before you submit.
+
+## Link your GitHub
+
+Link your GitHub account so the games you publish are attributed to you
+in the arcade. Connect over SSH:
+
+    ssh shellcade.com
+
+Then open the User menu and choose Link GitHub, and follow the prompt.
+Once linked, games you author show up under your name.
+
+## Where to go next
+
+- GUIDE.md — the full authoring guide: the event-to-frame model, time
+  via OnWake, input and controls, leaderboards, durable per-player KV,
+  multiplayer rendering, and smoke scripts.
+- ABI.md — the normative contract: the wasm ABI, host functions, and
+  the packed payload encodings the kit compiles against.
+- github.com/shellcade/games — the public catalog of published games to
+  read and learn from.