diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d1492746
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+# to use this file, rename it to .env and fill out the values
+# in docker-compose.yml, set env_file to .env for each service
+# like this:
+#  twitch-chat-listener:
+#    env_file:
+#      - .env
+# remove the environment section from all services in docker-compose.yml as you will now use the .env
+# i have it in there because i use doppler
+
+# Used in docker compose to prepend containers
+COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME="dotabod"
+
+# Set the Node environment to development
+NODE_ENV="development"
+
+# MongoDB connection URL
+MONGO_URL="mongodb://mongodb:27017/dotabod"
+
+# Twitch API credentials from https://dev.twitch.tv/console/apps/
+TWITCH_CLIENT_ID=""
+TWITCH_CLIENT_SECRET=""
+
+# Twitch EventSub secret for verifying requests
+TWITCH_EVENTSUB_SECRET=""
+
+# Comma delimited channel names to join during development
+# In production, Dotabod will not join these channels
+DEV_CHANNELS=""
+
+# Comma delimited channel names where these users can run mod commands in all channels the bot joins
+ADMIN_CHANNELS=""
+
+# If using supabase self hosted docker, add the following to the end of supabase docker-compose.yml
+# networks:
+#   default:
+#     name: dotabod
+#     external: true
+# Supabase credentials
+DB_URL="" # http://kong:8000 if using supabase local docker, from API_EXTERNAL_URL in .env
+DB_SECRET="" # the supabase ANON_KEY in supabase docker .env
+DATABASE_URL="postgresql://postgres:your-super-secret-and-long-postgres-password@db:5432/postgres"
+
+# Steam Web API key for accessing Steam API data
+# https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey
+STEAM_WEB_API=""
+
+# Steam credentials for retrieving medals
+# Must have email auth & 2f authentication disabled
+# https://store.steampowered.com/join
+STEAM_USER=""
+STEAM_PASS=""
+
+# AWS S3 credentials for Supabase backups
+# Leave blank if you don't want to backup Supabase
+AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=""
+AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=""
+AWS_BUCKET_NAME=""
+AWS_REGION=""
+
+### NGINX setup
+### Feel free to ignore these for local dev, only need it to host live going into production
+# Server name for the Nginx configuration file
+NGINX_HOST=""
+
+# Twitch EventSub API host
+EVENTSUB_HOST=""
+
+# SSL/TLS certificates for the GSI backend server
+TLS_CERT="-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
+...
+-----END CERTIFICATE-----"
+
+TLS_KEY="-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
+...
+-----END PRIVATE KEY-----"
+
+# Optional https://stratz.com/api token used for win probability calculation
+STRATZ_TOKEN=""
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index a6d6298d..6abb90ba 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 .env*
+!.env.example
 .idea
 node_modules
 assets