--- /dev/null
+PHP Parser
+==========
+
+[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/nikic/PHP-Parser.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/nikic/PHP-Parser) [![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/github/nikic/PHP-Parser/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://coveralls.io/github/nikic/PHP-Parser?branch=master)
+
+This is a PHP 5.2 to PHP 7.1 parser written in PHP. Its purpose is to simplify static code analysis and
+manipulation.
+
+[**Documentation for version 3.x**][doc_master] (stable; for running on PHP >= 5.5; for parsing PHP 5.2 to PHP 7.1).
+
+[Documentation for version 2.x][doc_2_x] (stable; for running on PHP >= 5.4; for parsing PHP 5.2 to PHP 7.0).
+
+[Documentation for version 1.x][doc_1_x] (unsupported; for running on PHP >= 5.3; for parsing PHP 5.2 to PHP 5.6).
+
+In a Nutshell
+-------------
+
+The parser turns PHP source code into an abstract syntax tree. For example, if you pass the following code into the
+parser:
+
+```php
+<?php
+echo 'Hi', 'World';
+hello\world('foo', 'bar' . 'baz');
+```
+
+You'll get a syntax tree looking roughly like this:
+
+```php
+array(
+ 0: Stmt_Echo(
+ exprs: array(
+ 0: Scalar_String(
+ value: Hi
+ )
+ 1: Scalar_String(
+ value: World
+ )
+ )
+ )
+ 1: Expr_FuncCall(
+ name: Name(
+ parts: array(
+ 0: hello
+ 1: world
+ )
+ )
+ args: array(
+ 0: Arg(
+ value: Scalar_String(
+ value: foo
+ )
+ byRef: false
+ )
+ 1: Arg(
+ value: Expr_Concat(
+ left: Scalar_String(
+ value: bar
+ )
+ right: Scalar_String(
+ value: baz
+ )
+ )
+ byRef: false
+ )
+ )
+ )
+)
+```
+
+You can then work with this syntax tree, for example to statically analyze the code (e.g. to find
+programming errors or security issues).
+
+Additionally, you can convert a syntax tree back to PHP code. This allows you to do code preprocessing
+(like automatedly porting code to older PHP versions).
+
+Installation
+------------
+
+The preferred installation method is [composer](https://getcomposer.org):
+
+ php composer.phar require nikic/php-parser
+
+Documentation
+-------------
+
+ 1. [Introduction](doc/0_Introduction.markdown)
+ 2. [Usage of basic components](doc/2_Usage_of_basic_components.markdown)
+ 3. [Other node tree representations](doc/3_Other_node_tree_representations.markdown)
+ 4. [Code generation](doc/4_Code_generation.markdown)
+
+Component documentation:
+
+ 1. [Error handling](doc/component/Error_handling.markdown)
+ 2. [Lexer](doc/component/Lexer.markdown)
+
+ [doc_1_x]: https://github.com/nikic/PHP-Parser/tree/1.x/doc
+ [doc_2_x]: https://github.com/nikic/PHP-Parser/tree/2.x/doc
+ [doc_master]: https://github.com/nikic/PHP-Parser/tree/master/doc