diff --git a/docs/quickstart.rst b/docs/quickstart.rst
--- a/docs/quickstart.rst
+++ b/docs/quickstart.rst
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
 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.
+This quick tutorial shows how to compress and browse a graph using the
+`swh.graph` API.
 
 It does not cover the technical details behind the graph compression techniques
-nor how to generate these compressed graph files.
+(refer to :ref:`Graph compression <compression>`).
 
 
 Dependencies
@@ -25,6 +24,11 @@
 
    $ sudo apt install python3-virtualenv default-jre
 
+To compress a graph, you will need zstd_ compression tools.
+
+
+.. _zstd: https://facebook.github.io/zstd/
+
 
 Install
 -------
@@ -60,32 +64,70 @@
      map         Manage swh-graph on-disk maps
      rpc-serve   run the graph REST service
 
+Compression
+-----------
 
-API server
-----------
+Existing datasets
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
-To start a `swh.graph` API server, you need a compressed graph dataset. You can
-download a small dataset here:
+You can directly use compressed graph datasets provided by Software Heritage.
+Here is a small and realistic dataset (3.1GB):
 
   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/
 
+Own datasets
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+A graph is described as both its adjacency list and the set of nodes identifiers
+in plain text format. Such graph example can be found in the
+`swh/graph/tests/dataset/` folder. Depending on the machine you are using, you
+might want to tune parameters down for lower RAM usage. Parameters are
+configured in a separate YAML file:
+
+.. code:: yaml
+
+    graph:
+    compress:
+        batch_size: 1000
+
+Then, we can run the compression:
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+
+   (swhenv) ~/t/swh-graph-tests$ swh graph -C config.yml compress --graph swh/graph/tests/dataset/example --outdir output/
+
+   [...]
+
+   (swhenv) ~/t/swh-graph-tests$ ls output/
+    example-bv.properties  example.mph            example.obl      example.outdegree     example.stats             example-transposed.offsets
+    example.graph          example.node2pid.bin   example.offsets  example.pid2node.bin  example-transposed.graph  example-transposed.properties
+    example.indegree       example.node2type.map  example.order    example.properties    example-transposed.obl
+
+
+API server
+----------
+
+To start a `swh.graph` API server of a compressed graph dataset, run:
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+   (swhenv) ~/t/swh-graph-tests$ swh graph rpc-serve -g output/example
+   Loading graph output/example ...
+   Graph loaded.
+   ======== Running on http://0.0.0.0:5009 ========
+   (Press CTRL+C to quit)
+
 From there you can use this endpoint to query the compressed graph, for example
 with httpie_ (`sudo apt install`) from another terminal:
 
@@ -94,10 +136,40 @@
 
 .. code:: bash
 
+   ~/tmp$ http :5009/graph/visit/nodes/swh:1:rel:0000000000000000000000000000000000000010
+    HTTP/1.1 200 OK
+    Content-Type: text/plain
+    Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2020 08:33:25 GMT
+    Server: Python/3.8 aiohttp/3.6.2
+    Transfer-Encoding: chunked
+
+    swh:1:rel:0000000000000000000000000000000000000010
+    swh:1:rev:0000000000000000000000000000000000000009
+    swh:1:rev:0000000000000000000000000000000000000003
+    swh:1:dir:0000000000000000000000000000000000000002
+    swh:1:cnt:0000000000000000000000000000000000000001
+    swh:1:dir:0000000000000000000000000000000000000008
+    swh:1:dir:0000000000000000000000000000000000000006
+    swh:1:cnt:0000000000000000000000000000000000000004
+    swh:1:cnt:0000000000000000000000000000000000000005
+    swh:1:cnt:0000000000000000000000000000000000000007
+
+
+Running the existing `python3kcompress` dataset:
+
+.. code:: bash
+
+   (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)
+
+
    ~/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
+   Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2020 08:35:19 GMT
    Server: Python/3.8 aiohttp/3.6.2
    Transfer-Encoding: chunked
 
@@ -108,7 +180,6 @@
    [...]
    swh:1:cnt:a6b60e797063fef707bbaa4f90cfb4a2cbbddd4a
    swh:1:cnt:cc0a1deca559c1dd2240c08156d31cde1d8ed406
-   ~/tmp$
 
 
 See the documentation of the :ref:`API <swh-graph-api>` for more details.