diff --git a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7228673
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+{
+    "name": "Python",
+    "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/python:latest",
+    "features": {
+        "azure-cli": "latest",
+        "git": "latest"
+    },
+    "customizations": {
+        "vscode": {
+            "settings": {
+                "files.insertFinalNewline": true,
+                "files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true
+            },
+            "extensions": [
+                "ms-python.python"
+            ]
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/docs/development.md b/docs/development.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d834b54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/development.md
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# Development
+
+## VSCode Setup
+
+To set up VSCode for development:
+
+1. start the editor with the Python devcontainer
+
+1. install the dependencies:
+
+    ```bash
+    # the _version.py file is generated and may need to be removed
+    rm python-gpt-po/_version.py
+
+    python -m pip install -e .
+    ```
+
+## Running the Tests
+
+```bash
+python -m pytest
+```