diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 15a9f95..06eab06 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -12,3 +12,9 @@
 # rspec failure tracking
 .rspec_status
 /Gemfile.lock
+
+# Local dotenv files
+.env.development.local
+.env.test.local
+.env.production.local
+.env.local
diff --git a/bin/console b/bin/console
index aa95bad..905163f 100755
--- a/bin/console
+++ b/bin/console
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 # frozen_string_literal: true
 
 require 'bundler/setup'
+require 'dotenv/load'
 require 'nostr'
 require 'pry'
 
diff --git a/nostr.gemspec b/nostr.gemspec
index 48d6c12..979fbdb 100644
--- a/nostr.gemspec
+++ b/nostr.gemspec
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.require_paths = ['lib']
 
   spec.add_development_dependency 'bundler-audit', '~> 0.9'
+  spec.add_development_dependency 'dotenv', '~> 2.8'
   spec.add_development_dependency 'guard', '~> 2.18'
   spec.add_development_dependency 'guard-bundler', '~> 3.0'
   spec.add_development_dependency 'guard-bundler-audit', '~> 0.1'