diff --git a/packages/grpc-tools/README.md b/packages/grpc-tools/README.md
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@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# grpc-tools
+
+This package distributes the Protocol Buffers compiler `protoc` along with the
+plugin for generating client and service objects for use with the Node gRPC
+libraries.
+
+## Usage
+
+This library exports the `grpc_tools_node_protoc` executable, which accepts all
+of the same arguments as `protoc` itself. For use with Node, you most likely
+want to use CommonJS-style imports. An example of generating code this way can
+be found in [this guide](https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/reference/javascript-generated#commonjs-imports).
+The `grpc_tools_node_protoc` automatically includes the Node gRPC plugin, so
+it also accepts the `--grpc_out=[option:]path` argument. The option can be
+one of the following:
+
+ - `grpc_js`: Generates code with `require('@grpc/grpc-js')` instead of
+   `require('grpc')`
+ - `generate_package_definition`: Generates code that does not `require` any
+   gRPC library, and instead generates `PackageDefinition` objects that can
+   be passed to the `loadPackageDefinition` function provided by both the
+   `grpc` and `@grpc/grpc-js` libraries.
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diff --git a/packages/grpc-tools/package.json b/packages/grpc-tools/package.json
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--- a/packages/grpc-tools/package.json
+++ b/packages/grpc-tools/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "grpc-tools",
-  "version": "1.8.1",
+  "version": "1.9.0",
   "author": "Google Inc.",
   "description": "Tools for developing with gRPC on Node.js",
   "homepage": "https://grpc.io/",