diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 67ab2f2..f549f62 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -15,6 +15,13 @@ Install this plugin in the same environment as [LLM](https://llm.datasette.io/).
 llm install llm-documentcloud
 ```
 
+Add your DocumentCloud credentials to your environment variables (likely in your shell profile file):
+
+```bash
+export DC_USERNAME=""
+export DC_PASSWORD=""
+```
+
 ## Usage
 
 Use the `dc:` fragment to load documents hosted on DocumentCloud.