diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d564d17..7e59fac 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -5,3 +5,25 @@ _Quick and dirty utilities to build, start and stop services._
 ## Usage
 
 Ensure that `go-task` is installed and `task -l`!
+
+## System configuration
+
+Scripts used by the `task` command will expect certain configuration files to exist on the system.
+
+A file should exist at `/etc/opt/spadinastan/common.env` to define general root locations for where application data and media will be stored.
+
+```
+# /etc/opt/common.env
+
+# Storage for application configuration volumes.
+APP_DATA_DIR=...
+
+# Storage for media owned by applications, such as downloads.
+STORAGE_DIR=...
+```
+
+## Per-app configuration
+
+Each application expects to find an environment file under `/etc/opt/spadinastan/<application>.env`. This is passed to the container as an envfile on start.
+
+If the container doesn't expect anything, the file should still be present but empty.