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diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
--- a/docs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -10,4 +10,5 @@
cli
configuration
Design notes <design>
+ Tutorial <tutorial>
API reference </apidoc/swh.fuse>
diff --git a/docs/tutorial.md b/docs/tutorial.md
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/tutorial.md
@@ -0,0 +1,223 @@
+# Software Heritage Filesystem (SwhFS) --- Tutorial
+
+
+## Installation
+
+The Software Heritage virtual filesystem (SwhFS) is available from PyPI
+as [swh.fuse](https://pypi.org/project/swh.fuse/). It can be installed from
+there using `pip`:
+
+ $ pip install swh.fuse
+
+
+## Setup and teardown
+
+SwhFS is controlled by the `swh fs` command-line interface (CLI).
+
+Like all filesystems, SwhFS must be "mounted" before use and "unmounted"
+afterwards. Users should first mount the archive as a whole and then browse
+archived objects looking up their SWHIDs below the `archive/` entry-point. To
+mount the Software Heritage archive, use the `swh fs mount` command:
+
+ $ mkdir swhfs
+ $ swh fs mount swhfs/ # mount the archive
+
+ $ ls -1F swhfs/ # list entry points
+ archive/ # <- start browsing from here
+ meta/
+
+By default SwhFS daemonizes into background and logs to syslog; it can be kept
+in foreground, logging to the console, by passing `-f/--foreground` to `mount`.
+
+To unmount use `swh fs umount PATH`. Note that, since SwhFS is a *user-space*
+filesystem, mounting and unmounting it are not privileged operations, any user
+can do it.
+
+The configuration file `~/.swh/config/global.yml` is read if present. Its main
+use case is inserting a per-user authentication token for the SWH API, which
+might be needed in case of heavy use to bypass the default API rate limit. See
+the {ref}`configuration documentation <swh-fuse-config>` for details.
+
+
+## Lazy loading
+
+Once mounted, the archive can be navigated as if it were locally available
+on-disk. Archived objects are referenced by
+{ref}`Software Heritage identifiers <persistent-identifiers>` (SWHIDs).
+They are loaded on-demand from the archive and populate lazily the `archive/`
+directory below the SwhFS mount point.
+
+SWHIDs for source code that is not locally available can be obtained in various
+ways: searching on the [Software Heritage website][webui]; finding SWHID
+references in [scientific papers][citeguide], [Wikidata][wikidataswhid], and
+software bills of materials using the [SPDX standard][spdx]; deriving SWHIDs
+from other version control system references (e.g., as SWHIDs version 1 are
+compatible with Git, a Git commit identifier like
+`9d76c0b163675505d1a901e5fe5249a2c55609bc` can be turned into a SWHID by simply
+prefixing it with `swh:1:rev:` to obtain
+`swh:1:rev:9d76c0b163675505d1a901e5fe5249a2c55609bc`).
+
+[citeguide]: https://www.softwareheritage.org/save-and-reference-research-software
+[spdx]: https://spdx.dev/
+[swhid]: https://docs.softwareheritage.org/devel/swh-model/persistent-identifiers.html
+[webui]: https://archive.softwareheritage.org
+[wikidataswhid]: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P6138
+
+
+## Source code files
+
+Here is a SwhFS Hello World:
+
+ $ cd swhfs/
+
+ $ cat archive/swh:1:cnt:c839dea9e8e6f0528b468214348fee8669b305b2
+ #include <stdio.h>
+
+ int main(void) {
+ printf("Hello, World!\n");
+ }
+
+Given the SWHID of a source code file, we can directly access it via the
+filesystem.
+
+Metadata about archived source code artifacts is also locally available. For
+each entry under `archive/` there is a matching JSON file under `meta/`,
+corresponding to what the [Software Heritage Web API][webapi] will return. For
+example, here is what the Software Heritage archive knows about the above Hello
+World implementation:
+
+ $ jq meta/swh:1:cnt:c839dea9e8e6f0528b468214348fee8669b305b2.json
+ {
+ "length": 67,
+ "status": "visible",
+ "checksums": {
+ "sha256": "06dfb5d936f50b3cb80152aa053724e4a18417c35f745b66ab9571c25afd0f79",
+ "sha1": "459ee8545e5ba6cb819ba41e6ea2f0011cedd728",
+ "blake2s256": "87e6ab9c92681e9a022a8f4679dcd9d9b841fe4146edcbc15329fc66d8c82b4f",
+ "sha1_git": "c839dea9e8e6f0528b468214348fee8669b305b2"
+ },
+ "data_url": "https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/content/sha1_git:c839dea9e8e6f0528b468214348fee8669b305b2/raw/",
+ "filetype_url": "https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/content/sha1_git:c839dea9e8e6f0528b468214348fee8669b305b2/filetype/",
+ "language_url": "https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/content/sha1_git:c839dea9e8e6f0528b468214348fee8669b305b2/language/",
+ "license_url": "https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/1/content/sha1_git:c839dea9e8e6f0528b468214348fee8669b305b2/license/"
+ }
+
+
+[webapi]: https://archive.softwareheritage.org/api/
+
+
+## Source code trees
+
+In addition to individual source code files, we can also browse entire source
+code directories. Here is the historical Apollo 11 source code, where we can
+find interesting comments about the antenna during landing:
+
+ $ cd archive/swh:1:dir:1fee702c7e6d14395bbf5ac3598e73bcbf97b030
+
+ $ ls | wc -l
+ 127
+
+ $ grep -i antenna THE_LUNAR_LANDING.s | cut -f 5
+ # IS THE LR ANTENNA IN POSITION 1 YET
+ # BRANCH IF ANTENNA ALREADY IN POSITION 1
+
+We can checkout the commit of a more modern code base, like jQuery, and count
+its JavaScript lines of code (SLOC):
+
+ $ cd archive/swh:1:rev:9d76c0b163675505d1a901e5fe5249a2c55609bc
+
+ $ ls -F
+ history/
+ meta.json@
+ parent@
+ parents/
+ root@
+
+ $ find root/src/ -type f -name '*.js' | xargs cat | wc -l
+ 10136
+
+
+## History browsing
+
+`meta.json` files of revision objects contain complete commit metadata, e.g.:
+
+ $ jq '.author.name, .date, .message' meta.json
+ "Michal Golebiowski-Owczarek"
+ "2020-03-02T23:02:42+01:00"
+ "Data:Event:Manipulation: Prevent collisions with Object.prototype ..."
+
+Commit history can be browsed commit-by-commit digging into directories
+`parent(s)/` directories or, more efficiently, using the history summaries
+located under `history/`:
+
+ $ ls -f history/by-page/000/ | wc -l
+ 6469
+
+ $ ls -f history/by-page/000/ | head -n 5
+ swh:1:rev:358b769a00c3a09a8ec621b8dcb2d5e31b7da69a
+ swh:1:rev:4a7fc8544e2020c75047456d11979e4e3a517fdf
+ swh:1:rev:364476c3dc1231603ba61fc08068fa89fb095e1a
+ swh:1:rev:721744a9fab5b597febea64e466272eabfdb9463
+ swh:1:rev:4592595b478be979141ce35c693dbc6b65647173
+
+The jQuery commit at hand is preceded by 6469 commits, which can be listed in
+`git log` order via the `by-page` view. The `by-hash` and `by-date` views list
+commits sharded by commit identifier and timestamp:
+
+ $ ls history/by-hash/00/ | head -n 5
+ swh:1:rev:00a9c2e5f4c855382435cec6b3908eb9bd5a53b7
+ swh:1:rev:005040379d8b64aacbe54941d878efa6e86df1cc
+ swh:1:rev:00cc67af23bf9cf2cdbaeaeee6ded76baf0292f0
+ swh:1:rev:00575d4d8c7421c5119f181009374ff2e7736127
+ swh:1:rev:0019a463bdcb81dc6ba3434505a45774ca27f363
+
+ $ ls -F history/by-date/
+ 2006/
+ 2007/
+ 2008/
+ ...
+ 2018/
+ 2019/
+ 2020/
+
+ $ ls -f history/by-date/2020/03/16/
+ swh:1:ref:90fed4b453a5becdb7f173d9e3c1492390a1441f
+
+ $ jq .date history/by-date/2020/03/16/*/meta.json
+ "2020-03-16T21:49:29+01:00"
+
+Note that to populate the `by-date` view metadata about all commits in the
+history are needed. To avoid blocking on that, metadata are retrieved
+asynchronously, populating the view incrementally. The hidden `by-date/.status`
+file provides a progress report and is removed upon completion.
+
+
+## Repository snapshots and branches
+
+Snapshot objects keep track of where each branch and release (or "tag") pointed
+at archival time. Here is an example using
+the [Unix history repository](https://github.com/dspinellis/unix-history-repo),
+which uses historical Unix releases as branch names:
+
+ $ cd archive/swh:1:snp:2ca5d6eff8f04a671c0d5b13646cede522c64b7d
+
+ $ ls -f | wc -l
+ 210
+
+ $ ls -f | grep Bell
+ refs%2Fheads%2FBell-32V-Snapshot-Development
+ refs%2Fheads%2FBell-Release
+ refs%2Ftags%2FBell-32V
+
+ $ cd refs%2Fheads%2FBell-Release
+ $ jq .message,.date meta.json
+ "Bell 32V release ..."
+ "1979-05-02T23:26:55-05:00"
+
+ $ grep core root/usr/src/games/fortune.c
+ printf("Memory fault -- core dumped\n");
+
+We can check that 3 of the 210 branches correspond to historical Bell Labs UNIX
+releases. And We can dig into the `fortune` implementation
+of [UNIX/32V](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX/32V) instantly, without having
+to clone a 1.6 GiB repository first.
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