diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 65ac0339..313f68f4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -8,6 +8,64 @@ A Rust and Bevy skating project built from Skate 3 reverse-engineering research.
 Includes skating, tricks, grinds, offboard movement, difficulty settings and
 `.skate` map support. Gameplay parity is still a work in progress.
 
+## History
+
+This rewrite builds on more than two years of Skate 3 reverse engineering and
+modding work that began before the Rust project. Its development timeline
+should not be mistaken for the time it took to understand the original game.
+
+Ethan Wingfield, known as **dumbad**
+([Ethanw05](https://github.com/Ethanw05)), developed the research and tooling
+collected in
+[DumbadsSkate3ModdingTools](https://github.com/Ethanw05/DumbadsSkate3ModdingTools).
+That work established the foundation for understanding the game's file formats,
+animation data, and game interaction systems used by the rewrite. It involved
+examining the original game, decoding binary structures, building parsers and
+exporters, and testing those discoveries against the game.
+
+The tooling includes ArenaBuilder, collision PSG generation, clustered-mesh
+serialization and compression, KD-tree construction, mesh and material data
+builders, AI-path data, ChallengeEditor, and DLC-building tools. These are
+concrete outputs of the earlier research, rather than discoveries that began
+with the Rust rewrite.
+
+Chasm later worked on a Skate 3 recompilation and a custom renderer based on
+Ethan's earlier renderer work. The Rust/Bevy project followed that work,
+bringing the accumulated research into a new implementation. Credit for
+developing the rewrite and credit for the research that made it possible are
+both part of this project's history.
+
+This project is a reconstruction of Skate 3 systems in Rust and Bevy.
+Recompilation of the original executable is a different approach. Loading
+original assets and reproducing demonstrated behavior does not establish
+complete equivalence with the original game; gameplay parity remains a work
+in progress.
+
+## AI usage
+
+AI coding tools have been used in the broader research and development effort,
+including work on tooling and the Rust implementation. AI assistance is part
+of the development history and should be acknowledged alongside the people
+who directed the work and supplied the underlying research.
+
+The rewrite was not produced by giving an AI an unexplored game and having it
+independently recover everything. It builds on the earlier reverse engineering,
+format knowledge, tools, and experiments described above. The time spent
+generating or adapting implementation code does not include the two-plus years
+of work that established that foundation.
+
+AI-generated code is not, by itself, evidence that a recovered format or
+gameplay system is correct. Claims about accuracy need support from inspection
+of the original game, reproducible tests, and behavioral comparisons.
+Likewise, a successful demonstration should not be described as proof of
+complete 1:1 parity.
+
+When describing or reporting on this project, distinguish the original
+reverse-engineering work, AI-assisted implementation, reuse of retail assets,
+and the behavior actually verified in the rewrite. AI assistance does not
+replace attribution to the people and projects whose work supplied the
+necessary knowledge.
+
 ## Play
 
 [Download Experimental](https://github.com/SK8-ENGINE/skate-3-rust-engine/releases/tag/experimental).