diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..994d3782
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+repos:
+  - repo: https://github.com/psf/black
+    rev: 24.8.0
+    hooks:
+      - id: black
+        files: ^src/
+  - repo: https://github.com/terrencepreilly/darglint
+    rev: v1.8.1
+    hooks:
+      - id: darglint
+        files: ^src/
+        args: ["-v", "2", "-z", "short"]
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8397c605..5fe77cd8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -286,6 +286,16 @@ Here's a list of relevant env. variables that are used by AgentLab:
 - `AGENTLAB_EXP_ROOT`, desired path for your experiments to be stored, defaults to `~/agentlab-results`.
 - `AGENTXRAY_SHARE_GRADIO`, which prompts AgentXRay to open a public tunnel on launch.
 
+## Contributing
+
+For development, install the dev extras and the pre-commit hooks so formatting
+(black) and docstring checks (darglint) run automatically before each commit:
+
+```bash
+pip install -e ".[dev]"
+pre-commit install
+```
+
 ## Misc
 
 if you want to download HF models more quickly