diff --git a/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genbot/README.md b/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genbot/README.md
index 2bc686e..657acf2 100644
--- a/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genbot/README.md
+++ b/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genbot/README.md
@@ -5,8 +5,25 @@
 
 ## Getting certs
 
-1. Grab github personal access token (see: https://help.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token-for-the-command-line)
-1. Grab a gerrit HTTP auth cookie at https://code-review.googlesource.com/settings/#HTTPCredentials > Obtain password > `git-your@email.com=SomeHash....`
+This tool relies on API authentication for both github (which hosts the `google.golang.org/genproto/...` libraries) and the
+Gerrit code review instance `code-review.googlesource.com` which is where the `cloud.google.com/go/...` libraries are maintained.
+
+You need to supply credentials for both systems to successfully manage the generation of gapic libraries.
+
+### Github
+
+For Github, you need to generate/supply a Personal Access Token.  More information on how that's done is here:
+https://help.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token-for-the-command-line
+
+### Gerrit
+
+For Gerrit, you need a gerrit authentication cookie.  The authentication flow in gerrit to fetch this information begins here:
+https://code-review.googlesource.com/settings/#HTTPCredentials
+
+At the end, it provides a shell script for injecting the cookies into your .gitcookies file.  There's typically two cookies in the provided shell script, one for code.googlesource.com and one for code-review.googlesource.com (though there is an option to generate a single cookie for the entire domain as well).  You want the cookie correspnding to code-review.googlesource.com.
+
+The relevant portion which needs to be passed to this tool looks similar to this (you need both the identity and the secret):
+**git-yourlogin.yourdomain.com=1//abcdef01010209202-cbdef010102-skdjskljsdkjsksjd**
 
 ## Running locally
 
@@ -26,7 +43,6 @@
     --githubUsername=$GITHUB_USERNAME \
     --githubName="Jean de Klerk" \
     --githubEmail=deklerk@google.com \
-    --gerritCookieName=o \
     --gerritCookieValue=<cookie>
 ```
 
@@ -46,7 +62,6 @@
     -e "GITHUB_USERNAME=jadekler" \
     -e "GITHUB_NAME=\"Jean de Klerk\"" \
     -e "GITHUB_EMAIL=deklerk@google.com" \
-    -e "GERRIT_COOKIE_NAME=o" \
     -e "GERRIT_COOKIE_VALUE=<cookie>" \
     genbot
 ```
diff --git a/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genbot/main.go b/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genbot/main.go
index 1f348a1..e7d047b 100644
--- a/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genbot/main.go
+++ b/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genbot/main.go
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
 	githubUsername    = flag.String("githubUsername", "", "ex -githubUsername=jadekler")
 	githubName        = flag.String("githubName", "", "ex -githubName=\"Jean de Klerk\"")
 	githubEmail       = flag.String("githubEmail", "", "ex -githubEmail=deklerk@google.com")
-	gerritCookieName  = flag.String("gerritCookieName", "", "ex: -gerritCookieName=o")
+	gerritCookieName  = flag.String("gerritCookieName", "o", "ex: -gerritCookieName=o")
 	gerritCookieValue = flag.String("gerritCookieValue", "", "ex: -gerritCookieValue=git-your@email.com=SomeHash....")
 
 	usage = func() {
@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@
 	-githubUsername=jadekler \
 	-githubEmail=deklerk@google.com \
 	-githubName="Jean de Klerk" \
-	-gerritCookieName=o \
 	-gerritCookieValue=git-your@email.com=SomeHash....
 
 -githubAccessToken
@@ -70,7 +69,7 @@
 	The email to use in the github commit.
 
 -gerritCookieName
-	The name of the cookie. Almost certainly "o".
+	The name of the cookie. Almost certainly "o" (the default).
 
 -gerritCookieValue
 	The value of the gerrit cookie. Probably looks like "git-your@email.com=SomeHash....". Get this at https://code-review.googlesource.com/settings/#HTTPCredentials > Obtain password > "git-your@email.com=SomeHash....".`)
diff --git a/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genmgr/README.md b/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genmgr/README.md
index 5ba9146..f81539f 100644
--- a/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genmgr/README.md
+++ b/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genmgr/README.md
@@ -18,8 +18,25 @@
 
 ## Getting certs
 
-1. Grab github personal access token (see: https://help.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token-for-the-command-line)
-2. Grab a gerrit HTTP auth cookie at https://code-review.googlesource.com/settings/#HTTPCredentials > Obtain password > `git-your@email.com=SomeHash....`
+This tool relies on API authentication for both github (which hosts the `google.golang.org/genproto/...` libraries) and the
+Gerrit code review instance `code-review.googlesource.com` which is where the `cloud.google.com/go/...` libraries are maintained.
+
+You need to supply credentials for both systems to successfully manage the generation of gapic libraries.
+
+### Github
+
+For Github, you need to generate/supply a Personal Access Token.  More information on how that's done is here:
+https://help.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token-for-the-command-line
+
+### Gerrit
+
+For Gerrit, you need a gerrit authentication cookie.  The authentication flow in gerrit to fetch this information begins here:
+https://code-review.googlesource.com/settings/#HTTPCredentials
+
+At the end, it provides a shell script for injecting the cookies into your .gitcookies file.  There's typically two cookies in the provided shell script, one for code.googlesource.com and one for code-review.googlesource.com (though there is an option to generate a single cookie for the entire domain as well).  You want the cookie correspnding to code-review.googlesource.com.
+
+The relevant portion which needs to be passed to this tool looks similar to this (you need both the identity and the secret):
+**git-yourlogin.yourdomain.com=1//abcdef01010209202-cbdef010102-skdjskljsdkjsksjd**
 
 ## Running locally
 
@@ -31,7 +48,6 @@
     --githubAccessToken=11223344556677889900aabbccddeeff11223344 \
     --githubName="Jean de Klerk" \
     --githubEmail=deklerk@google.com \
-    --gerritCookieName=o \
     --gerritCookieValue=<cookie>
 ```
 
@@ -48,7 +64,6 @@
     -e "GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN=11223344556677889900aabbccddeeff11223344" \
     -e "GITHUB_NAME=\"Jean de Klerk\"" \
     -e "GITHUB_EMAIL=deklerk@google.com" \
-    -e "GERRIT_COOKIE_NAME=o" \
     -e "GERRIT_COOKIE_VALUE=<cookie>" \
     genmgr
 ```
diff --git a/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genmgr/main.go b/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genmgr/main.go
index 34b9a14..43c8d7d 100644
--- a/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genmgr/main.go
+++ b/internal/gapicgen/cmd/genmgr/main.go
@@ -41,13 +41,12 @@
 	githubAccessToken = flag.String("githubAccessToken", "", "Get an access token at https://help.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token-for-the-command-line")
 	githubName        = flag.String("githubName", "", "ex -githubName=\"Jean de Klerk\"")
 	githubEmail       = flag.String("githubEmail", "", "ex -githubEmail=deklerk@google.com")
-	gerritCookieName  = flag.String("gerritCookieName", "", "ex: -gerritCookieName=o")
+	gerritCookieName  = flag.String("gerritCookieName", "o", "ex: -gerritCookieName=o")
 	gerritCookieValue = flag.String("gerritCookieValue", "", "ex: -gerritCookieValue=git-your@email.com=SomeHash....")
 
 	usage = func() {
 		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, `genmgr \
 	-githubAccessToken=11223344556677889900aabbccddeeff11223344 \
-	-gerritCookieName=o \
 	-gerritCookieValue=git-your@email.com=SomeHash....
 
 -githubAccessToken
@@ -60,7 +59,7 @@
 	The email to use in the github commit.
 
 -gerritCookieName
-	The name of the cookie. Almost certainly "o".
+	The name of the cookie. Almost certainly "o" (the default).
 
 -gerritCookieValue
 	The value of the gerrit cookie. Probably looks like "git-your@email.com=SomeHash....". Get this at https://code-review.googlesource.com/settings/#HTTPCredentials > Obtain password > "git-your@email.com=SomeHash....".`)