diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index dec6c21..b91f61b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1 +1,22 @@
-"# workhelper" 
+# workhelper
+
+## API sanity check
+
+1. Install dependencies and start the development server from the Next.js app directory:
+   ```bash
+   cd sop-app
+   npm install
+   npm run dev
+   ```
+2. With the server running on [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000), hit the health-check endpoint:
+   ```bash
+   curl http://localhost:3000/api/test
+   # {"status":"ok"}
+   ```
+3. To verify request parsing via POST, send JSON data:
+   ```bash
+   curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/test \
+     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+     -d '{"message":"hello"}'
+   # {"status":"ok","received":{"message":"hello"}}
+   ```
diff --git a/sop-app/app/api/test/route.ts b/sop-app/app/api/test/route.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cbc6273
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sop-app/app/api/test/route.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+import { NextResponse } from "next/server";
+
+export function GET() {
+  return NextResponse.json({ status: "ok" }, { status: 200 });
+}
+
+export async function POST(request: Request) {
+  try {
+    const data = await request.json();
+    return NextResponse.json({ status: "ok", received: data }, { status: 200 });
+  } catch (error) {
+    return NextResponse.json(
+      { status: "error", message: "Invalid JSON body" },
+      { status: 400 }
+    );
+  }
+}