diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9daeafb9864cf43055ae93beb0afd6c7d144bfa4..3161d7aca06b2e3acdecc4c7d7483e1a775f4f77 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1 +1,9 @@
-test
+# Setup
+
+To install the Python virtual environment, run
+
+```
+conda env create --file environment.yml
+conda activate transcript-structure-generator
+```
+
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2199378c8f19bb33d873e2e095caece8417dc8af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+name: transcript-structure-generator
+channels:
+  - defaults
+  - conda-forge
+dependencies:
+  - python=3.9
+  - matplotlib
+  - pandas
+  - flake8-docstrings
+  - mypy
+  - flake8
+  - pytest
+  - coverage