diff --git a/docs/api.rst b/docs/api.rst
--- a/docs/api.rst
+++ b/docs/api.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+.. _swh-graph-api:
+
 Graph REST API
 ==============
 
diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
--- a/docs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
    :maxdepth: 1
    :caption: Overview
 
+   quickstart
    compression
    cli
    api
diff --git a/docs/quickstart.rst b/docs/quickstart.rst
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/quickstart.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+Quickstart
+==========
+
+This quick tutorial shows how to use a compressed graph dataset like the ones
+provided by Software Heritage, and make it browsable using the `swh.graph` API
+server.
+
+It does not cover the technical details behind the graph compression techniques
+nor how to generate these compressed graph files.
+
+
+Dependencies
+------------
+
+In order to run the `swh.graph` tool, you will need Python (>= 3.7) and Java
+JRE, you do not need the JDK if you install the package from pypi, but may want
+to install it if you want to hack the code or install it from this git
+repository.
+
+It is highly recommended to install this package in a virtualenv.
+
+On a Debian stable (buster) system:
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+   $ sudo apt install python3-virtualenv default-jre
+
+
+Install
+-------
+
+Create a virtualenv and activate it:
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+   ~/tmp$ mkdir swh-graph-tests
+   ~/tmp$ cd swh-graph-tests
+   ~/t/swh-graph-tests$ virtualenv swhenv
+   ~/t/swh-graph-tests$ . swhenv/bin/activate
+
+Install the `swh.graph` python package:
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+   (swhenv) ~/t/swh-graph-tests$ pip install swh.graph
+   [...]
+   (swhenv) ~/t/swh-graph-tests swh graph --help
+   Usage: swh graph [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
+
+     Software Heritage graph tools.
+
+   Options:
+     -C, --config-file FILE  YAML configuration file
+     -h, --help              Show this message and exit.
+
+   Commands:
+     api-client  client for the graph REST service
+     cachemount  Cache the mmapped files of the compressed graph in a tmpfs.
+     compress    Compress a graph using WebGraph Input: a pair of files...
+     map         Manage swh-graph on-disk maps
+     rpc-serve   run the graph REST service
+
+
+API server
+----------
+
+To start a `swh.graph` API server, you need a compressed graph dataset. You can
+download a small dataset here:
+
+  https://annex.softwareheritage.org/public/dataset/graph/latest/popular-3k-python/python3kcompress.tar
+
+And use it as dataset for the `swh.graph` API:
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+   (swhenv) ~/t/swh-graph-tests$ curl -O https://annex.softwareheritage.org/public/dataset/graph/latest/popular-3k-python/python3kcompress.tar
+   (swhenv) ~/t/swh-graph-tests$ tar xvf python3kcompress.tar
+   (swhenv) ~/t/swh-graph-tests$ touch python3kcompress/*.obl # fix the mtime of cached offset files to allow faster loading
+   (swhenv) ~/t/swh-graph-tests$ swh graph rpc-serve -g python3kcompress/python3k
+   Loading graph python3kcompress/python3k ...
+   Graph loaded.
+   ======== Running on http://0.0.0.0:5009 ========
+   (Press CTRL+C to quit)
+
+Note: not for the faint heart, but the full dataset is available at:
+
+  https://annex.softwareheritage.org/public/dataset/graph/latest/compressed/
+
+From there you can use this endpoint to query the compressed graph, for example
+with httpie_ (`sudo apt install`) from another terminal:
+
+.. _httpie: https://httpie.org
+
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+   ~/tmp$ http :5009/graph/leaves/swh:1:dir:432d1b21c1256f7408a07c577b6974bbdbcc1323
+   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
+   Content-Type: text/plain
+   Date: Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:12:58 GMT
+   Server: Python/3.8 aiohttp/3.6.2
+   Transfer-Encoding: chunked
+
+   swh:1:cnt:33af56e02dd970873d8058154bf016ec73b35dfb
+   swh:1:cnt:b03b4ffd7189ae5457d8e1c2ee0490b1938fd79f
+   swh:1:cnt:74d127c2186f7f0e8b14a27249247085c49d548a
+   swh:1:cnt:c0139aa8e79b338e865a438326629fa22fa8f472
+   [...]
+   swh:1:cnt:a6b60e797063fef707bbaa4f90cfb4a2cbbddd4a
+   swh:1:cnt:cc0a1deca559c1dd2240c08156d31cde1d8ed406
+   ~/tmp$
+
+
+See the documentation of the :ref:`API <swh-graph-api>` for more details.