diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9f62cc1..7eb83f1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,13 +1,45 @@
 kite
-====
+=======
 
-A library for creating, manipulating and displaying 2D shapes in JavaScript.
+kite is a library for creating, manipulating and displaying 2D shapes in JavaScript.
 
 By PhET Interactive Simulations
 https://phet.colorado.edu/
 
-### Documentation
-See the website with documentation and examples at http://phetsims.github.io/kite/
+Documentation, examples, and downloads are available at http://phetsims.github.io/kite/
+
+### To check out and build the code
+
+Our processes depend on [Node.js](http://nodejs.org/) and [Grunt](http://gruntjs.com/). It's highly recommended to install
+Node.js and then grunt with `npm install -g grunt-cli`.
+
+(1) Clone the simulation and its dependencies:
+```
+git clone https://github.com/phetsims/assert.git
+git clone https://github.com/phetsims/axon.git
+git clone https://github.com/phetsims/chipper.git
+git clone https://github.com/phetsims/dot.git
+git clone https://github.com/phetsims/kite.git
+git clone https://github.com/phetsims/perennial.git perennial-alias
+git clone https://github.com/phetsims/phet-core.git
+git clone https://github.com/phetsims/sherpa.git
+git clone https://github.com/phetsims/tandem.git
+```
+
+(2) Install dev dependencies:
+```
+cd chipper
+npm install
+cd ../perennial-alias
+npm install
+cd ../kite
+npm install
+```
+
+(3) Build kite
+
+Ensure you're in the kite directory and run `grunt --lint=false --report-media=false`. This will output files under the `build/` directory
 
 ### License
-See the [license](LICENSE)
\ No newline at end of file
+
+MIT license, see [LICENSE](LICENSE)
\ No newline at end of file