stuff happened

backend/task/README.md

@@ -4,4 +4,12 @@ also known as `task`
 
 ## What is this?
 
-I don't know yet - hopefully this will be filled out soon.
+This is a task runner/scheduler programs that will fire off various tasks. These tasks can be anything from an blog post import task to a RSS generator task. Additionally, there is task logs inside the database so that you can keep track of tasks when something goes wrong.
+
+## Things you should know
+
+`task` uses a `.env` file at the root of the project. The file takes standard environment variables (like enviroment variables you would put into a `.bashrc` or ad-hoc into your shell).
+
+For `task` to work properly, please make sure to first create the `.env` file, then fill out the following environment variables:
+
+- `DATABASE_URL` - needed for communicating to Postgres