diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..68ee1e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# Airsonic Web Client
+
+This is just meant for exploration. If you want to see something more serious, take a look at [airsonic-ui](https://github.com/airsonic/airsonic-ui).
+
+## Development
+
+The project is written in [ClojureScript](https://clojurescript.org/) and uses [re-frame](https://github.com/Day8/re-frame) for structure and peace of mind. The build tool is [shadow-cljs](https://shadow-cljs.github.io/docs/UsersGuide.html), which offers nice editor integration and interoparibility with the whole JavaScript ecosystem.
+
+To build the project make sure you have Node.js (v6.0.0), npm and Java 8 installed in your system.
+
+```
+# after cloning the project, first install all dependencies
+$ npm install
+# start a continuous build with hot-code-reloading; first build takes a while
+$ npm run dev
+# build and optimize the code once for production
+$ npm run build
+```
+
+**Note:** In dev mode this project comes with re-frame-10x. You can hit `Ctrl + h` to display the overlay and have a time traveling debugger.
+
+## Build artifacts
+
+Everything you need to serve the app can be found inside the `public` folder.
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index df7459a..87af941 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -4,7 +4,9 @@
   "description": "Airsonic UI written with re-frame",
   "main": "index.js",
   "scripts": {
-    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
+    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
+    "dev": "shadow-cljs watch app",
+    "build": "rm -r public/app/js; shadow-cljs release app"
   },
   "author": "Arne Schlüter",
   "license": "ISC",