From bc2bbec315008db96347ca90ae8ff5910936759c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Anuda Weerasinghe <anuda@live.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2023 19:38:47 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] updates readme to include .env instructions

---
 README.md | 10 +++++++++-
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 116a8ff..716fd6c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ development, so expect large changes to the codebase and features to be unstable
 
 ## Getting Started
 
-To get started, run `npm install` in both the `frontend` and `backend` folders.
+To get started, run `npm install` in the root, `frontend` and `backend` directories.
 
 Also, we use [Doppler](https://www.doppler.com) to populate the environment with the necessary secrets to access the
 database. Follow the instructions [here](https://docs.doppler.com/docs/install-cli) to install the Doppler CLI.
@@ -27,6 +27,14 @@ Run `doppler setup` in the parent folder to set this up.
 
 To run the frontend in development mode:
 
+Create a `.env` file in the `frontend` directory using `.env.template` as a template. You can do this by running
+
+```shell
+cp .env.template frontend/.env
+```
+
+Then run the following to start the frontend.
+
 ```shell
 cd frontend
 npm run dev