diff --git a/INSTALL.md b/INSTALL.md
index 91f8f027..4cff1214 100644
--- a/INSTALL.md
+++ b/INSTALL.md
@@ -157,3 +157,9 @@ meson setup configure -Dplatform=generic
 export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$DPDK_PATH/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu
 ```
 
+#### Troubleshooting: Mempool Capacity
+When running applications using the provided offline config file, a mempool creation error may occur:
+```sh
+Error: Mempool mempool_0 creation failed
+```
+This can be resolved by reducing the mempool capacity in the config file.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ed110ee1..7dea17b6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ fn main() {
     runtime.run();
 }
 ```
+Writing a Retina application consists of defining subscriptions. A subscription is defined by (1) [writing a filter](https://stanford-esrg.github.io/retina/retina_filtergen/index.html) to describe what subset of network traffic you're interested in, (2) choosing [data types to subscribe to](https://stanford-esrg.github.io/retina/retina_core/subscription/index.html), and (3) defining a callback function that takes in a subscribable data type and performs operations on the filtered data. 
 
 Build all examples in release mode: