diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 4e6c00db..46007e22 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 node_modules
 build
-json-schema-cache
\ No newline at end of file
+json-schema-cache
+/node
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 91825f1a..d056170f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -299,6 +299,14 @@ bm-create-pr --target
 Add --individual flag to import layer into standalone individual config file, otherwise import into aerial map.
 Add --vector flag to import new layer into vector map.
 
+## Development environment
+
+Prerequisite: [Nix](https://nixos.org/download/)
+
+When entering the project directory, run `nix-shell` to activate the development environment.
+
+On initial use, and when `package-lock.json` changes, run `npm i` to install Node.js packages. This will create a `node` executable in the root of the repo which you can use as the IDE interpreter.
+
 ## Versioning and Release
 
 To publish a release, the Pull Request opened by `release-please` bot needs to be merged:
diff --git a/shell.nix b/shell.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ac45d558
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shell.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+let
+  pkgs = import (builtins.fetchTarball {
+    name = "nixos-unstable-2024-09-17";
+    url = "https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs/archive/345c263f2f53a3710abe117f28a5cb86d0ba4059.tar.gz";
+    sha256 = "1llzyzw7a0jqdn7p3px0sqa35jg24v5pklwxdybwbmbyr2q8cf5j";
+  }) { };
+  nodejs = pkgs.nodejs;
+in
+pkgs.mkShell {
+  packages = [
+    pkgs.bashInteractive
+    nodejs
+  ];
+  shellHook = ''
+    ln --force --no-target-directory --symbolic "${nodejs}/bin/node" node
+  '';
+}