diff --git a/teaspoons-cli/README.md b/teaspoons-cli/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..973311f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/teaspoons-cli/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Teaspoons CLI
+
+## Python thin client auto-generation
+We use the [OpenAPI Generator](https://github.com/OpenAPITools/openapi-generator) to generate the "thin" Python client,
+which is then used to build the Python-based "thick" CLI tool.
+
+To generate the Python thin client, run the following command:
+```bash
+./gradlew :teaspoons-cli:openApiGenerate
+```
+
+This will produce generated files at `/teaspoons-cli/build/`.
+
+Note we do not run the openApiGenerate task as part of the main Teaspoons build, as it is not necessary for the 
+service itself and we don't want any potential bugs in the CLI to affect the service.
diff --git a/teaspoons-cli/teaspoons-client.gradle b/teaspoons-cli/teaspoons-client.gradle
index 30da3d8a..223e8b73 100644
--- a/teaspoons-cli/teaspoons-client.gradle
+++ b/teaspoons-cli/teaspoons-client.gradle
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@ tasks.openApiGenerate {
     configOptions.put("httpUserAgent", "teaspoons-client/0.0.0/python")
 }
 
-// because we're building this Python client in a Java project, we add this so that the Python gets generated when we build the project
-compileJava.dependsOn tasks.openApiGenerate
+// we do NOT want to build this project when building the main service project, to prevent a bug in the cli code from breaking the main service build
+//compileJava.dependsOn tasks.openApiGenerate
 
 task customCleanUp(type:Delete) {
     delete "${rootDir}/teaspoons-cli/build/"