diff --git a/nextclade/README.md b/nextclade/README.md
index e3f99e7..fc8b393 100644
--- a/nextclade/README.md
+++ b/nextclade/README.md
@@ -6,6 +6,14 @@ The new standard would be to include the Nextclade workflow within the pathogen
 This workflow is used to create the Nextclade datasets for this pathogen.
 All official Nextclade datasets are available at https://github.com/nextstrain/nextclade_data.
 
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> We do not have a generalized nextclade workflow so the rules files are empty and
+> will need to be filled in with your own rules. We suggest that you go through the
+> [Nextclade dataset creation guide](https://github.com/nextstrain/nextclade_data/blob/@/docs/dataset-creation-guide.md)
+> to understand how to create a Nextclade dataset from scratch. Then use
+> [mpox](https://github.com/nextstrain/mpox) as an example to create your own
+> Nextclade workflow.
+
 ## Workflow Usage
 
 The workflow can be run from the top level pathogen repo directory:
diff --git a/phylogenetic/README.md b/phylogenetic/README.md
index 7e961c8..fd2ef87 100644
--- a/phylogenetic/README.md
+++ b/phylogenetic/README.md
@@ -3,6 +3,14 @@
 This workflow uses metadata and sequences to produce one or multiple [Nextstrain datasets][]
 that can be visualized in Auspice.
 
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> We do not have a generalized phylogenetic workflow so the rules files are empty and
+> will need to be filled in with your own rules. We suggest that you go through the
+> ["Creating a phylogenetic workflow" tutorial](https://docs.nextstrain.org/en/latest/tutorials/creating-a-phylogenetic-workflow.html)
+> to understand the simplified zika-tutorial workflow. Then use [zika](https://github.com/nextstrain/zika)
+> and [mpox](https://github.com/nextstrain/mpox) as examples to create
+> your own phylogenetic workflow.
+
 ## Workflow Usage
 
 The workflow can be run from the top level pathogen repo directory: