diff --git a/.python-version b/.python-version
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+++ b/.python-version
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+3.12
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,2 +1,40 @@
 # 3d-blender-plugin
 A blender plugin for exporting a IIIF manifest from Blender
+
+## Development
+
+### Requirements
+
+Blender ships with its own version of Python, so you do not actually need anything apart from a code editor to develop this extension.
+
+There are a few tools that can help you with development, if you decide to use them:
+- [Pyenv](https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv) - "simple Python version management"
+- [Pyright](https://github.com/microsoft/pyright) - "a static type checker for Python"
+- [Ruff](https://github.com/astral-sh/ruff) - "an extremely fast Python linter and code formatter"
+
+All of these are **opt-in** and **not required** to develop the plugin.
+
+### Setup
+
+To initialize the development environment, run the following commands:
+
+```bash
+python3 -m venv venv
+source venv/bin/activate
+pip install -r requirements.txt
+```
+
+This should create a virtual environment, install the required dependencies, activate the virtual environment, and allow Pyright to find the Blender specific types.
+
+### Using the plugin
+
+To use the plugin, you need to install it in Blender.
+For development, the easiest way is to create a symlink from the Blender `user_default` directory to this directory.
+
+[This is how you can find the relevant directory depending on your operating system.](https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/4.2/advanced/blender_directory_layout.html)
+
+For example, on Linux you can run the following command:
+
+```bash
+ln -s /path/to/this/plugin ~/.config/blender/4.2/extensions/user_default/iiif_blender
+```
diff --git a/pyrightconfig.json b/pyrightconfig.json
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+++ b/pyrightconfig.json
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+{
+  "venvPath": ".",
+  "venv": "venv",
+  "typeCheckingMode": "basic",
+  "reportMissingImports": true,
+  "pythonVersion": "3.12",
+  "extraPaths": ["./venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages"]
+}
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4669aed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+fake-bpy-module-4.2==20241010