diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 94b0f3bce..f8e893740 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ hs_err_pid*
 /findbugs/
 /target/
 **/.swarm/
+**/.venv
 
 #intellij
 .idea/
diff --git a/shell.nix b/shell.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5a9fa437d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shell.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+let
+  pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {};
+  lib-path = with pkgs;
+    lib.makeLibraryPath [
+      stdenv.cc.cc
+    ];
+in
+  pkgs.mkShell {
+    packages = with pkgs; [
+      python312
+      (poetry.override {python3 = python312;})
+      uv
+    ];
+
+    shellHook = ''
+      export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:${lib-path}
+    '';
+  }
diff --git a/venv.sh b/venv.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2d34b5d60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/venv.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env zsh
+
+# This code will set up the Python environment for running this code.
+
+# Run this code by typing `nix-shell`, then `source venv.sh`. Note that
+# running `venv.sh` without `source` will only install everything; it will
+# not change your terminal to use the correct environment.
+
+python -m venv .venv
+source .venv/bin/activate
+
+pip install -e .
+pip install click 'rx>=3.2.0' jinja2 pystache pyyaml 'langchain-core>=0.3.0' 'langchain-openai>=0.2.0' 'langchain-anthropic>=0.2.0' 'langchain-google-genai>=2.0.0' aiohttp
+
+export PYTHONPATH=$(pwd)/src:$PYTHONPATH