diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 5e5f687c..9e89916a 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ python:
 install:
 # Make a wheel and install it to test to catch possible
 # issues with MANIFEST.in
-- pip install --no-cache-dir pyyaml pytest wheel
+- pip install --no-cache-dir -r dev-requirements.txt
 - python setup.py bdist_wheel
 - pip install dist/*.whl
 
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6338ef3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -0,0 +1,211 @@
+# Local Development
+
+To develop & test repo2docker locally, you need:
+
+1. Familiarity with using a command line terminal
+2. A computer running macOS / Linux
+3. Some knowledge of git
+4. At least python 3.4
+5. Your favorite text editor
+6. A recent version of [Docker Community Edition](https://www.docker.com/community-edition)
+
+## Clone the repository
+
+First, you need to get a copy of the repo2docker git repository on your local
+disk.
+
+```bash
+git clone https://github.com/jupyter/repo2docker
+```
+
+This will clone repo2docker into a directory called `repo2docker`. You can
+make that your current directory with `cd repo2docker`.
+
+## Set up local virtual environment
+
+After cloning the repository (or your fork of the repo), you should set up an
+isolated environment to install libraries required for running / developing 
+repo2docker. There are many ways to do this, and a `virtual environment` is
+one of them.
+
+```bash
+python3 -m venv .
+source bin/activate
+pip3 install -e .
+pip3 install -r dev-requirements.txt
+```
+
+This should install all the libraries required for testing & running repo2docker!
+
+## Verify that docker is installed and running
+
+If you do not already have [Docker](https://www.docker.com/), you should be able
+to download and install it for your operating system using the links from the
+[official website](https://www.docker.com/community-edition). After you have
+installed it, you can verify that it is working by running the following commands:
+
+```bash
+docker version
+```
+
+It should output something like:
+
+```
+Client:
+ Version:      17.09.0-ce
+ API version:  1.32
+ Go version:   go1.8.3
+ Git commit:   afdb6d4
+ Built:        Tue Sep 26 22:42:45 2017
+ OS/Arch:      linux/amd64
+
+Server:
+ Version:      17.09.0-ce
+ API version:  1.32 (minimum version 1.12)
+ Go version:   go1.8.3
+ Git commit:   afdb6d4
+ Built:        Tue Sep 26 22:41:24 2017
+ OS/Arch:      linux/amd64
+ Experimental: false
+```
+
+Then you are good to go!
+
+## Running tests
+
+We have a lot of tests for various cases supported by repo2docker in the `tests/`
+subdirectory. These use [py.test](https://docs.pytest.org/).
+
+You can run all the tests with:
+
+```bash
+py.test -s tests/*
+```
+
+If you want to run a specific test, you can do so with:
+
+```bash
+py.test -s tests/<path-to-test>
+```
+
+# Updating libraries installed for all repos
+
+For both the conda and virtualenv base environments, we install specific
+pinned versions of all dependencies. We explicitly list the dependencies
+we want, then *freeze* them at commit time to explicitly list all the
+transitive dependencies at current versions. This way, we know that
+all dependencies will have the exact same version installed at all times.
+
+If you update a library in the base environment, you need to update it
+for both the virtualenv and conda environments before submitting a PR.
+
+## Virtualenv dependencies
+
+There are two files related to virtualenv dependencies:
+
+1. `repo2docker/buildpacks/python/requirements.txt`
+
+   Contains list of packages to install in Python3 virtualenvs,
+   which are the default. This should be where all Notebook versions &
+   notebook extensions (such as JupyterLab / nteract) go.
+
+2. `repo2docker/buildpacks/python/requirements2.txt`
+
+   Contains list of packages to install in Python2 virtualenvs, which
+   can be specifically requested by users. This only needs `IPyKernel`
+   and kernel related libraries - Notebook / Notebook Extension need
+   not be installed here.
+
+Once you edit either of these files to add a new package / bump version on
+an existing package, you should then run `./repo2docker/buildpacks/python/freeze.bash`.
+This script will resolve dependencies and write them to the respective `.frozen.txt`
+files. You will need Python3 and Python2 with virtualenv to run the script.
+
+All the .txt files in `repo2docker/buildpacks/python/` should be comitted to git.
+
+## Conda dependencies
+
+There are two files related to conda dependencies:
+
+1. `repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/environment.yml`
+
+   Contains list of packages to install in Python3 conda environments,
+   which are the default. This should be where all Notebook versions &
+   notebook extensions (such as JupyterLab / nteract) go.
+
+2. `repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/environment.py-2.7.yml`
+
+   Contains list of packages to install in Python2 conda environments, which
+   can be specifically requested by users. This only needs `IPyKernel`
+   and kernel related libraries - Notebook / Notebook Extension need
+   not be installed here.
+
+Once you edit either of these files to add a new package / bump version on
+an existing package, you should then run `./repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/freeze.py`.
+This script will resolve dependencies and write them to the respective `.frozen.yml`
+files. You will need `docker` installed to run this script.
+
+The following files should be comitted to git:
+
+- repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/environment.frozen.yml
+- repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/environment.py-2.7.yml
+- repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/environment.py-3.6.frozen.yml
+- repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/environment.py-2.7.frozen.yml
+- repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/environment.py-3.5.frozen.yml
+- repo2docker/buildpacks/conda/environment.yml
+
+## Make a Pull Request
+
+Once you've made the commit, please make a Pull Request to the `jupyter/repo2docker`
+repository, with a description of what versions were bumped / what new packages were
+added and why.
+
+# Release Process
+
+We try to make a release of repo2docker every few months if possible.
+
+## Access
+
+To release repo2docker, you will need proper access credentials prior to beginning the process.
+
+1. Access to the PyPI package for repo2docker
+2. Access to push tags to the jupyter/repo2docker repository
+3. Acess to push images to dockerhub on jupyter/repo2docker
+
+If you do not have access to any of these, please contact a current maintainer of the project!
+
+## Steps
+
+1. Make a PR bumping version number of repo2docker in the
+   `setup.py` file (like https://github.com/jupyter/repo2docker/pull/221),
+   get it merged, and make sure your local checkout is the
+   same as `master` on GitHub.
+
+2. In your environment, install packages needed to make releases:
+   ```bash
+   pip install wheel twine
+   ```
+
+3. Clean out the `dist` directory and then build the `wheel` and `tar.gz` files:
+   ```bash
+   rm -f dist/*
+   python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
+   ```
+4. Once tests pass, time to upload! 
+   ```bash
+   twine upload dist/*
+   ```
+   
+   This might ask for your PyPI username and password.
+   
+5. Make a git tag and push it to GitHub:
+   ```bash
+   git tag -a v<version>
+   git push official --tags
+   ```
+
+6. Tag and push a docker image:
+   ```bash
+   docker build -t jupyter/repo2docker:v<version> .
+   docker push jupyter/repo2docker:v<version>
+   ```
diff --git a/dev-requirements.txt b/dev-requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4afcffba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev-requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+pyyaml
+pytest
+wheel