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+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,39 @@
 
 # prom-loki
 
+this repo is a clone of [loki-stack](https://github.com/grafana/helm-charts/tree/main/charts/loki-stack)
+helm chart - with fixed dependency versions and a more fitting `values.yaml`.
+
+## RUNNING FOR DEVELOPMENT
+
+the easiest way to test the stack is to run it on your own local minikube
+cluster.
+
+very important that we use a kubernetes version <1.25 (some api features we
+need are now deprecated):
+```
+$ minikube start --kubernetes-version=1.23.5
+$ minikube addons enable ingress
+```
+
+some basic cluster setup commands
+```
+$ kubectl create namespace monitoring
+```
+
+to access the grafana web ui, we need a host to resolve to. we can just modify
+our `/etc/hosts` to fudge the dns. first note the output from:
+```
+$ minikube ip
+```
+
+and add the entry to `/etc/hosts`:
+```
+[minikube ip] [domain]
+```
+
+we can now install the helm chart
+```
+$ helm install -f values.yaml -n monitoring prom-loki .
+```
+