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+# Zen Storage Service (zenserver)
+
+This is the implementation of the local storage service for UE5. It is intended to be deployed on
+user machines either as a daemon or launched ad hoc as required during  of editor/cooker/game startup
+
+This repo also contains a VFS prototype (zenfs) which is currently not functional, it's a prototype 
+which has decayed, hopefully it can be revisited at some point.
+
+## Setup
+
+To build the code you will need Visual Studio 2019 (we use c++20 features), git and vcpkg.
+
+* Install Visual Studio 2019 Version 16.9.4 or later (16.10 is recommended as it contains improvements to debug codegen which have a pretty significant impact when iterating in debug mode)
+* Install [git](https://git-scm.com/download/win)
+
+We use vcpkg to manage some libraries. Right now it's not set up on a project local
+basis and requires manual bootstrap so you will need to do the following at least once:
+
+* open up a command line window
+  * create a `git`/`github` directory somewhere for you to clone repos into
+  * issue `git clone https://github.com/bionicbeagle/vcpkg.git` and build it using the `bootstrap-vcpkg.bat` script. This git repo is temporary and will change in the future but it should be an easy upgrade when the time comes
+* optional: add the `vcpkg` directory you cloned to your PATH to allow invoking vcpkg on the command line
+* issue `vcpkg integrate install`
+
+Now you are ready to start building!
+
+* clone the `zen` repository if you haven't already
+  * run `git clone https://github.com/EpicGames/zen.git`, or use Visual Studio integrated git to clone 
+    and open the repo
+* open the `zen.sln` VS solution (NOTE: you currently need to run Visual Studio in ADMIN mode since 
+  http.sys requires elevation)
+  * you can now build and run `zenserver` as usual from Visual Studio
+  * third-party dependencies will be built the first time via the `vcpkg` integration. This is not as
+    fast as it could be (it does not go wide) but should only happen on the first build
+
+# Implementation Notes
+
+* The implementation currently depends only on a few libraries including the C++ standard library
+* It uses exceptions for errors
+* It is currently not portable as it uses Windows APIs directly. But as we all know, there is no 
+  portable code, just code that has been ported many times. The plan is to implement support for 
+  MacOS and Linux soon, and some research to enable it has been done
+* `zenservice.exe` currently requires elevated access to enable `http.sys` access. This will be relaxed 
+  in the future by offering to use a portable server interface without elevation
+* The service endpoints are currently open on all NICs and will respond to requests from any host. This
+  will be tightened up in the future to require some degree of authentication to satisfy security 
+  requirements
+
+# Testing
+
+* There are some test projects
+  * `zencore-test` exercises unit tests in the zencore project
+  * `zenserver-test` exercises the zen server itself (functional tests)
+
+The tests are implemented using [doctest](https://github.com/onqtam/doctest), which is similar to Catch in usage.
+
+# Coding Standards
+
+See [Coding.md](Coding.md)
+
+Run `prepare_commit.bat` before committing code. It ensures all source files are formatted with
+clang-format which you will need to install.
+
+(More helpful instructions needed here :)