diff --git a/.envrc b/.envrc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3e100d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.envrc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+use nix -p nodejs postgresql python3 process-compose
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 43fb149..a442400 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@ node_modules
 dist
 *.env
 .pgdata
+.direnv
diff --git a/process-compose.yaml b/process-compose.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e42d6e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/process-compose.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+version: "0.5"
+
+environment:
+  - "PGDATA=.pgdata"
+  - "PGHOST=.pgdata"
+  - "DATABASE_URL=postgresql:///annotatemap?host=${PWD}/.pgdata"
+
+processes:
+  postgres-init:
+    command: |
+      if [ ! -f .pgdata/PG_VERSION ]; then
+        initdb -D .pgdata
+      fi
+    availability:
+      restart: "no"
+
+  postgres:
+    command: postgres -D .pgdata -k "$PWD/.pgdata" -c listen_addresses=
+    depends_on:
+      postgres-init:
+        condition: process_completed_successfully
+    readiness_probe:
+      exec:
+        command: pg_isready -h "$PWD/.pgdata"
+      initial_delay_seconds: 1
+      period_seconds: 1
+
+  db-setup:
+    command: |
+      createdb -h "$PWD/.pgdata" annotatemap 2>/dev/null || true
+      psql -h "$PWD/.pgdata" annotatemap < server/src/schema.sql
+    depends_on:
+      postgres:
+        condition: process_healthy
+    availability:
+      restart: "no"
+
+  shared-build:
+    command: npm run build --workspace=shared
+    availability:
+      restart: "no"
+
+  server:
+    command: npm run dev:server
+    depends_on:
+      db-setup:
+        condition: process_completed_successfully
+      shared-build:
+        condition: process_completed_successfully
+
+  client:
+    command: npm run dev:client
+    depends_on:
+      shared-build:
+        condition: process_completed_successfully