diff --git a/.envrc b/.envrc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7de3fa2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.envrc
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# if nix is installed and dotenv allowed in dir, use it to pull dependencies
+if has nix; then
+  use nix
+fi
diff --git a/shell.nix b/shell.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59e5d78
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shell.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
+pkgs.mkShell {
+  name = "afrapay";
+  packages = with pkgs; [ dotnet-sdk_7 ];
+}