diff --git a/.env-example b/.env-example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..22c1399
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env-example
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+XE_ACCOUNT_ID=<your-account-id-here>
+XE_API_KEY=<your-api-key-here>
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index bcddf9a..71eb83f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2,6 +2,25 @@
 
 `xexe` is Superhog's tool to ingest currency rates from xe.com into our DWH. `xexe` is a Python CLI application, and this is the repository where it lives.
 
+## How to use the tool
+
+*Note: the app has only been used so far in a Linux environment. Windows support is dubious.*
+
+
+### Install
+
+- Ensure you have Python 3.10> and `poetry` installed.
+- Run `poetry install` to install dependencies.
+- Test that everything is working by running `poetry run xexe smoke-test`. You should see a happy pig.
+
+### Set up credentials
+
+To use `xexe`, you will need to have credentials for the `xe.com` API. Specifically, you need an account id and it's matching api key.
+
+To set up your environment, you should create a `.env` file in the root of this repository. You can use the `.env-example` file as a reference. We also recommend running `chmod 400` or `chmod 600` on it for safety.
+
+Once you have done this, you can run `poetry run xexe xe-healthcheck`. If the connection to the API was successful, you will see some output telling you so.
+
 ## How to setup dev environment
 
 *Note: the app has only been used so far in a Linux environment. Windows support is dubious.*