docs: explain the roadmap
Closes #176
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3b8bd25..5b2354a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
* Postsubmit [](https://buildkite.com/bazel/rules-proto)
-This repository contains Starlark implementation of Protobuf rules in Bazel.
+This repository contains a Starlark implementation of `proto_library` and related "base layer" rules in Bazel.
+It does **not** provide rules for any specific languages. These are typically expected to be provided in the ruleset for the language.
For a high-level overview of using Protocol Buffers and gRPC with Bazel, see
<https://bazel-contrib.github.io/SIG-rules-authors/proto-grpc.html>.
@@ -10,6 +11,15 @@
For the list of Proto rules, see the Bazel
[documentation](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/be/overview.html).
+## Roadmap
+
+As of September 2023, this repo is mostly empty and contains stubs for `proto_library`, `ProtoInfo` and other proto toolchain support rules.
+
+This will change soon, around the time Bazel 7 is released (in Oct/Nov 2023), because the stubs will be replaced with actual implementations.
+We plan to remove the native implementations in Bazel 8, at which point rules_proto will be the only way to build Protobuf rules.
+
+As such it's recommended to use this repository now, so that the removal of implementations from Bazel 8 does not cause you problems.
+
## Getting Started
To get started with `rules_proto`, add the `WORKSPACE` file snippet from the
@@ -46,4 +56,4 @@
For asking questions see:
* [rules_proto mailing list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/proto-bazel-discuss)
-* Slack channel `#proto` on [slack.bazel.build](https://slack.bazel.build)
\ No newline at end of file
+* Slack channel `#proto` on [slack.bazel.build](https://slack.bazel.build)
