diff --git a/docs/CONTRIBUTING.md b/docs/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 51768dabaf..d42d1f5129 100644
--- a/docs/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/docs/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ An easier solution would be to use Docker.
 
 **Setup**
 1. Navigate to the root directory of telescope.
+1. Copy env.example to .env to create a new environment configuration.
+1. Replace default key values in .env with credentials. 
 1. Run `npm install`.
 1. Run `npm start` to start telescope.
 *If you get a series of errors, you may have to start redis-server depending on your installation configuration, do this by running the command `redis-server` in a seperate command window).*
diff --git a/env.example b/env.example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b9522af0a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/env.example
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# NODE_ENV should be one of "development" or "production"
+NODE_ENV=development
+
+# PORT is the port used by the web server
+PORT=8080
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index f1df3627db..cf49f8496b 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -18,7 +18,8 @@
   "homepage": "https://github.com/Seneca-CDOT/telescope#readme",
   "dependencies": {
     "bent": "^7.0.2",
-    "bull": "^3.11.0"
+    "bull": "^3.11.0",
+    "dotenv": "^8.2.0"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
     "eslint": "^6.6.0",
diff --git a/src/config.js b/src/config.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4ca624acf4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/config.js
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+const dotenv = require('dotenv');
+
+dotenv.config();