What URL format do these badges use?

They use the shields.io static badge endpoint, https://img.shields.io/badge/LABEL-MESSAGE-COLOR. The label, message, and color are URL-encoded into the path. Shields.io renders an SVG image at that URL.

How do I show special characters like dashes or spaces?

Shields.io treats a single dash as the label/message separator, so a literal dash must be doubled to --, and an underscore renders as a space. This tool applies those escapes automatically when you type spaces or dashes.

Can I use custom hex colors?

Yes. Besides named colors like green and blue you can enter a 6-digit hex code such as 4c1. Shields.io accepts both named colors and hex values in the color slot of the URL.

Do these badges show live build status?

No. These are static badges with text you type. For live status use the dynamic endpoints shields.io provides per service (GitHub Actions, npm, Codecov). This tool builds the static label-message-color form.

Markdown or HTML — which should I use?

Use Markdown in a README.md file; it is shorter and renders everywhere GitHub-flavored Markdown is supported. Use the HTML snippet when you need to control sizing or place badges in raw HTML documentation.

What is the README Badge Generator?

Generate Markdown and HTML badge snippets for GitHub READMEs — build status, license, version, coverage, downloads — using the shields.io URL format. Pick label, message, and color, then copy and paste. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

README Badge Generator

Name: README Badge Generator
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Get one useful tool a week

Like this tool? Enter your email and we'll send you one genuinely useful Gera tool a week — plus a link to come back to this one. No spam, one-click unsubscribe any time.

Badges at the top of a README communicate project health at a glance — build passing, MIT licensed, version 2.1.0. This generator builds the shields.io static-badge URL for you and wraps it in ready-to-paste Markdown or HTML, handling the tricky character escaping that trips people up.

How it works

Shields.io exposes a static badge at a predictable URL:

https://img.shields.io/badge/<label>-<message>-<color>

The single dash between the three parts is a separator, so the label and message themselves have to escape any literal dashes by doubling them (- becomes --) and represent spaces with underscores (_). Color can be a named value such as brightgreen or a hex code like 4c1. An optional ?style= query selects the visual style. The Markdown wrapper is ![alt](url); the HTML wrapper is an <img> tag.

Common badges and what they communicate

The most useful static badges for open source and internal projects:

Label	Message example	Color	Communicates
`build`	`passing` / `failing`	brightgreen / red	CI health
`license`	`MIT` / `Apache 2.0`	blue	Usage rights at a glance
`version`	`v2.1.0`	informational	Current release
`coverage`	`87%`	yellow	Test coverage level
`status`	`active` / `maintained`	green	Project maintenance state
`platform`	`node 20+`	lightgrey	Runtime requirements

Escaping rules that trip people up

Shields.io uses a dash as the separator between label, message, and color — which means literal dashes in your text must be doubled. This generator handles that automatically, but it is useful to know why:

A message of v2.1.0-beta must become v2.1.0--beta in the URL
A space becomes _ (underscore), so build passing becomes build_passing
Percent signs must be URL-encoded as %25, otherwise the browser strips the % and the following two characters

Style options

The ?style= parameter changes the visual appearance. Common choices:

flat — the default; small, minimal
flat-square — same but squared corners
for-the-badge — larger, uppercase, bolder — popular for prominent status rows
social — mimics social-media button style

Example and tips

A badge labeled build with message passing in brightgreen produces https://img.shields.io/badge/build-passing-brightgreen. If your message is v2.1.0 stable, the space becomes an underscore and the URL becomes https://img.shields.io/badge/version-v2.1.0_stable-blue.

Keep badges to three or four — coverage, build, license, and version are the most useful — and place them on a single line directly under the project title. Too many badges signal noise rather than quality, and they add visual clutter that buries the actual project description.