diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 41625b26..9adda0d5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 # ordinal tree library
 
+## Getting Started
+
+### build + install dependencies
+
+- see [github/Rconybea/randomgen](https://github.com/Rconybea/randomgen) -- random number generators e.g. xoshiro256ss
+- see [github/Rconybea/refcnt](https://github.com/Rconybea/refcnt) -- intrusive reference-counting
+
 ### build + install
 ```
 $ cd xo-ordinaltree