diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f06bee8..29a411e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ point to `bin/lib`.
   - `cd` to the project's base directory
   - `scripts/setup_project.sh`
 
+This will download the following dependenceis:
+- [tiny-utf8](https://github.com/DuffsDevice/tiny-utf8)
 
 ### Building
 
diff --git a/scripts/setup_project.sh b/scripts/setup_project.sh
index e69de29..d1f56be 100755
--- a/scripts/setup_project.sh
+++ b/scripts/setup_project.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# figure out if using wget or curl
+echo -n "Wget or curl? "
+if command -v wget >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    USE_WGET=yes
+    echo "wget"
+else
+    if command -v curl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+        USE_WGET=no
+        echo "curl"
+    else
+        echo "Neither wget nor curl found. Aborting."
+        exit 1
+    fi
+fi
+
+function download {
+    URL="$1"
+    DESTINATION="$2"
+    echo -n "Downloading $URL to $DESTINATION... "
+    if [ $USE_WGET = yes ]; then
+        wget -O "$DESTINATION" "$URL" >/dev/null 2>&1
+    else
+        curl -L "$URL" --output "$DESTINATION" >/dev/null 2>&1
+    fi
+    echo "done."
+}
+
+echo "Cleaning build files..."
+scripts/clean.sh
+echo "Cleaning dependencies..."
+scripts/clean_dependencies.sh
+
+mkdir -v dependencies/tmp
+download https://github.com/DuffsDevice/tiny-utf8/archive/refs/tags/v4.4.3.tar.gz dependencies/tmp/tiny-utf8.tar.gz
+#TODO: verify the files we have downloaded
+#TODO: keep the files somewhere else as a cache and only download the ones
+#      we don't have or that got corrupted
+#TODO: once we cache files properly, have clean_dependencies.sh prune
+#      unknown files from the cache (for example old versions
+#      of dependencies)
+
+echo -n "Extracting tiny-utf8... "
+gzip -d dependencies/tmp/tiny-utf8.tar.gz
+tar -xf dependencies/tmp/tiny-utf8.tar -C dependencies
+echo "done."
+
+rm -rv dependencies/tmp