diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a68f293
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# (optional) websockets URL to connect to hastic-server
+HASTIC_SERVER_URL=ws://localhost:8002
+# (optional) logging level: 'DEBUG', 'INFO', 'WARNING', 'ERROR', 'CRITICAL'
+HS_AN_LOGGING_LEVEL=DEBUG
+# (optional) time we wait for a response from hastic/analytics before sending the error
+LEARNING_TIMEOUT=120
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ade4385..608c810 100755
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,4 +2,5 @@ build/
 dist/
 *.spec
 __pycache__/
-test/
\ No newline at end of file
+test/
+.env
diff --git a/analytics/config.py b/analytics/config.py
index 410c55b..ec91c13 100644
--- a/analytics/config.py
+++ b/analytics/config.py
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import os
 import json
+from dotenv import load_dotenv
 
+load_dotenv()
 
 PARENT_FOLDER = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))))
 CONFIG_FILE = os.path.join(PARENT_FOLDER, 'config.json')
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index f3bb4a1..459a958 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -4,4 +4,5 @@ numpy==1.14.5
 pandas==0.20.3
 pyzmq==18.0.1
 scipy==1.1.0
-websockets==8.1
\ No newline at end of file
+websockets==8.1
+python-dotenv==0.14.0
\ No newline at end of file