diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/certificates/README.rst b/lms/djangoapps/certificates/README.rst
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+Status: Maintenance
+
+Responsibilities
+================
+The Certificates app is responsible for creating and managing Course-Run certificates, including any relevant data models for invalidating and white-listing users' certificate eligibilities.
+
+Direction: Move and Extract
+===========================
+Certificates related functionality is scattered across a number of places and should be better consolidated. Today we have:
+
+* ``lms/djangoapps/certificates``
+* ``openedx/core/djangoapps/certificates``
+* ``cms/djangoapps/contentstore/views/certificates.py``
+* Various front-end static templates in multiple locations
+
+Ideally, we want to extract these into the `credentials service`_, which would be ultimately responsible for Course-Run and Program certificates (and possibly other credentials). Right now, the `credentials service`_ only manages Program certificates.
+
+.. _credentials service: https://github.com/edx/credentials
+
+Glossary
+========
+
+More Documentation
+==================
diff --git a/openedx/core/djangoapps/certificates/README.rst b/openedx/core/djangoapps/certificates/README.rst
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+See ``lms/djangoapps/certificates/README.rst``.