diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 97bbc23..c88f54a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -16,3 +16,36 @@ Immediate goals:
 - NBT library
   - [ ] parse NBT
   - [ ] decode and encode data
+
+
+## Project Setup Instructions
+
+### Prerequisites:
+
+This project requires bash, wget or curl, and a C++ compiler.
+
+**For people using other shells than bash:** You need to at least have bash
+installed to use the scripts, but using it as your shell while working on
+this project also allows you to use the provided aliases.
+
+If you don’t want to use bash as your shell, not even temporarily for this
+project, you can use the scripts by running them from the project's base
+directory and run any generated executables with `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` set to point to `bin/lib`.
+
+
+### Setup
+
+- `git clone` this repository
+- if using bash:
+  - `source` the file `setupenv.bashrc` from the project's base directory
+    to load the provided shell environment
+  - `setup_project`
+- if not using bash or not using the provided environment:
+  - `cd` to the project's base directory
+  - `scripts/setup_project.sh`
+
+
+### Building
+
+To build the project, just use the `build` alias or invoke the `build.sh`
+script from the project's base directory.