diff --git a/.env b/.env
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0332ac9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+irc:channel=#openmrstest
+elasticsearch:host=http://elasticsearch:9200
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 6cd1760..9a34b0c 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -4,4 +4,5 @@
 config.json
 node_modules
 logs
-npm-debug.log
\ No newline at end of file
+npm-debug.log
+esdata
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c26754b..c3919c7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,15 +1,13 @@
 # Record Scrum notes from the #openmrs IRC channel
-
+You may set settings such as the channel and the elasticsearch host [.env](.env) in this working directory, or optionally in `config.json`. A sample `.env` file is provided.
 ## Before building
 
     npm install -g mocha
 
 ## Development
 
-### ES (for a dev environment on OSX)
+This requires [docker-compose][] for provisioning. For development, simply do:
 
-    $ docker run --name es -d -p 9200:9200 -p 9300:9300 elasticsearch -Des.network.bindHost=0.0.0.0
-     
 ## Run just the listener (without the webapp)
 
     $ node index --elasticsearch.host http://192.168.99.100:9200
@@ -30,28 +28,41 @@ If you do not have elasticsearch running on localhost:9200, then create a "confi
 Then
 
     $ npm start
-    
+
 And see the webapp running on http://localhost:3000
 
 ### Testing the docker build locally
 
-    $ docker run --name web -d -p 3000:3000 --link es:es -e "elasticsearch:host=http://es:9200" -e "irc:channel=#openmrstest" djazayeri/openmrs-scrumbot:1.0
+``` shell
+    $ docker-compose run elasticsearch web
+```
 
-## Prod
+## Production
 
 Note: this approach uses LINK networking, which will eventually be deprecated in Docker.
 
-### ES for prod on a Digital Ocean one-click app Docker box (don't expose ElasticSearch to the outside world, since it isn't secured)
+### ES for production on a Digital Ocean one-click app Docker box (don't expose ElasticSearch to the outside world, since it isn't secured)
+
+    ``` shell
+        $ docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose-prod.yml up -d elasticsearch web
+    ```
 
-    $ docker run -d --restart="unless-stopped" --name es -v "$PWD/esdata":/usr/share/elasticsearch/data -p 127.0.0.1:9200:9200 elasticsearch
-    
 ### dockerhub does builds automatically
 
-Whenever you commit code to this repository it is automatically built as djazayeri/openmrs-contrib-scrumbot:latest 
+Whenever you commit code to this repository it is automatically built as djazayeri/openmrs-contrib-scrumbot:latest
 
 ### run webapp+bot on docker on Digital Ocean
 
-    // this is automated as ./update-web
+``` shell
     $ docker pull djazayeri/openmrs-contrib-scrumbot:latest
     $ docker rm web
     $ docker run -d -p 80:3000 --name web --link es:es -e "elasticsearch:host=http://es:9200" djazayeri/openmrs-contrib-scrumbot:latest
+```
+
+   You may also use [docker-compose][] to handle this:
+
+``` shell
+    $ docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose-prod.yml up -d elasticsearch web
+```
+
+[docker-compose]: https://docs.docker.com/compose/
diff --git a/docker-compose-overrides.yml b/docker-compose-overrides.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0515069
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose-overrides.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+elasticsearch:
+  ports:
+  – "9200:9200"
+  - "9300:9300"
diff --git a/docker-compose-prod.yml b/docker-compose-prod.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31d01bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose-prod.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+elasticsearch:
+  ports:
+    - "127.0.0.1:9200:9200"
+    - "127.0.0.1:9300:9300"
+web:
+  ports:
+    - "80:3000"
+  environment:
+      - NODE_ENV=production
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b4ced1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+web:
+  build: . 
+  links:
+    - elasticsearch
+  env_file: ./.env
+  restart: unless-stopped
+
+elasticsearch:
+  image: elasticsearch:latest
+  command: elasticsearch -Des.network.bindHost=0.0.0.0
+  restart: unless-stopped
+  volumes:
+    - "./esdata:/usr/share/elasticsearch/data"
+