diff --git a/.envrc.example b/.envrc.example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58ce7aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.envrc.example
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+export EXTISM_ENABLE_WASI_OUTPUT=1 # Enable WASI output for debugging
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 87e7d02..c2d6cda 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@ target
 Cargo.lock
 extism-py
 examples/*.wasm
+.envrc
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ff74161..a4d0cc1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -349,6 +349,11 @@ extism call out.wasm count_vowels --wasi --input='Hello World Test!'
 # => "{\"count\":4}"
 ```
 
+### Debugging
+
+To improve your debugging experience and get more information for panics
+and crashes, you should set the `EXTISM_ENABLE_WASI_OUTPUT` env var.
+
 ## How it works
 
 This works a little differently than other PDKs. You cannot compile Python to