diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d40be5b..e2bb7ad 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,13 +1,74 @@
 # Kotlin SCIP support
+<img src="https://img.shields.io/maven-central/v/com.sourcegraph/semanticdb-kotlinc?style=flat-square" />
 
-This codebase implements a Kotlin compiler plugin that can be used together
-with [scip-java](https://sourcegraph.github.io/scip-java) to emit
+This codebase implements a Kotlin compiler plugin that can be used together with
+[scip-java](https://sourcegraph.github.io/scip-java) to emit
 [SCIP](https://github.com/sourcegraph/scip) indexes for Kotlin projects.
 
 ## Getting started
 
 This project must be used together with scip-java. Visit
-[scip-java](https://sourcegraph.github.io/scip-java/) for instructions on how
-to index Kotlin projects with scip-java. Note that scip-java indexes Kotlin
-sources even if you have no Java code.
+[scip-java](https://sourcegraph.github.io/scip-java/) for instructions on how to
+index Kotlin projects with scip-java. Note that scip-java indexes Kotlin sources
+even if you have no Java code.
+
+## SemanticDB support
+
+This project is implemented as a
+[SemanticDB](https://scalameta.org/docs/semanticdb/specification.html) compiler
+plugin. To generate SCIP, you first compile the Kotlin sources with the
+SemanticDB compiler plugin and then convert SemanticDB files into SCIP using
+`scip-java index-semanticdb`. See [Low-level usage](#low-level-usage) for more
+details on how to generate SemanticDB files and convert SemanticDB into SCIP.
+
+## Low-level usage
+
+
+First, fetch the jar file of the SemanticDB compiler plugin:
+[`com.sourcegraph:semanticdb-kotlinc:VERSION`](https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.sourcegraph/semanticdb-kotlinc).
+For example, you can use 
+[Coursier](https://get-coursier.io) to download the jar file.
+
+```sh
+curl -fLo coursier https://github.com/coursier/launchers/raw/master/coursier && chmod +x ./coursier
+export SEMANTICDB_KOTLIN_VERSION="latest.release" # or replace with a particular version
+export SEMANTICDB_KOTLIN_JAR=$(./coursier fetch com.sourcegraph:semanticdb-kotlinc:$SEMANTICDB_KOTLIN_VERSION)
+```
+
+Once you have the jar file, you need to determine two compiler options:
+
+- `sourceroot`: the absolute path to the root directory of your codebase. All
+  source files that you want to index should be under this directory. For Gradle
+  codebases, this is typically the toplevel `build.gradle` file. For Maven
+  codebases, this is typically the toplevel `pom.xml` file.
+- `targetroot`: the absolute path to the directory where you want the compiler
+plugin to write SemanticDB files. This can be any directory on your computer.
+
+Now you have all the necessary parameters to invoke the Kotlin compiler with
+the SemanticDB compiler plugin.
+
+```sh
+kotlinc -Xplugin=${SEMANTICDB_KOTLIN_JAR} \
+  -P plugin:semanticdb-kotlinc:sourceroot=SOURCEROOT_DIRECTORY \
+  -P plugin:semanticdb-kotlinc:targetroot=TARGETROOT_DIRECTORY
+```
+
+Once the compilation is complete, the targetroot should contain `*.semanticdb`
+files in the `META-INF/semanticdb` sub-directory.
+
+To convert the SemanticDB files into SCIP, run `scip-java index TARGETROOT_DIRECTORY`.
+If you have Coursier installed, you can run scip-java directly like this
+
+```sh
+cd $SOURCEROOT_DIRECTORY
+./coursier launch --contrib scip-java -- index-semanticdb TARGETROOT_DIRECTORY
+```
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+