diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index cfc3ca6c6..1b244904e 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ DEPS = $(shell go list -f '{{range .TestImports}}{{.}} {{end}}' ./...)
 PACKAGES = $(shell go list ./...)
 VETARGS?=-asmdecl -atomic -bool -buildtags -copylocks -methods \
          -nilfunc -printf -rangeloops -shift -structtags -unsafeptr
+EXTERNAL_TOOLS=\
+	github.com/tools/godep \
+	github.com/mitchellh/gox \
+	golang.org/x/tools/cmd/cover \
+	golang.org/x/tools/cmd/vet
+
 
 all: deps format
 	@mkdir -p bin/
@@ -50,4 +56,11 @@ web:
 web-push:
 	./scripts/website_push.sh
 
+# bootstrap the build by downloading additional tools
+bootstrap:
+	@for tool in  $(EXTERNAL_TOOLS) ; do \
+		echo "Installing $$tool" ; \
+    go get $$tool; \
+	done
+
 .PHONY: all cov deps integ test vet web web-push test-nodep
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4f6a563bc..7b788efd7 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,2 +1,89 @@
-# nomad
-Where the wild bits roam
+Nomad [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/hashicorp/nomad.svg)](https://travis-ci.org/hashicorp/nomad)
+=========
+
+-	Website: https://www.nomadproject.io
+-	IRC: `#nomad-tool` on Freenode
+-	Mailing list: [Google Groups](https://groups.google.com/group/nomad-tool)
+
+![Nomad](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hashicorp/nomad/master/website/source/assets/images/logo-header%402x.png?token=AAkIoLO_y1g3wgHMr3QO-559BN22rN0kks5V_2HpwA%3D%3D)
+
+Nomad is a cluster manager, designed for both long lived services and short
+lived batch processing workloads. Developers use a declarative job specification
+to submit work, and Nomad ensures constraints are satisfied and resource utilization
+is optimized by efficient task packing. Nomad supports all major operating systems
+and virtualized, containerized, or standalone applications.
+
+The key features of Nomad are:
+
+* **Docker Support**: Jobs can specify tasks which are Docker containers.
+  Nomad will automatically run the containers on clients which have Docker
+  installed, scale up and down based on the number of instances request,
+  and automatically recover from failures.
+
+* **Multi-Datacenter and Multi-Region Aware**: Nomad is designed to be
+  a global-scale scheduler. Multiple datacenters can be managed as part
+  of a larger region, and jobs can be scheduled across datacenters if
+  requested. Multiple regions join together and federate jobs making it
+  easy to run jobs anywhere.
+
+* **Operationally Simple**: Nomad runs as a single binary that can be
+  either a client or server, and is completely self contained. Nomad does
+  not require any external services for storage or coordination. This means
+  Nomad combines the features of a resource manager and scheduler in a single
+  system.
+
+* **Distributed and Highly-Available**: Nomad servers cluster together and
+  perform leader election and state replication to provide high availability
+  in the face of failure. The Nomad scheduling engine is optimized for
+  optimistic concurrency allowing all servers to make scheduling decisions to
+  maximize throughput.
+
+* **HashiCorp Ecosystem**: Nomad integrates with the entire HashiCorp
+  ecosystem of tools. Along with all HashiCorp tools, Nomad is designed
+  in the unix philosophy of doing something specific and doing it well.
+  Nomad integrates with tools like Packer, Consul, and Terraform to support
+  building artifacts, service discovery, monitoring and capacity management.
+
+For more information, see the [introduction section](https://www.nomadproject.io/intro)
+of the Nomad website.
+
+Getting Started & Documentation
+-------------------------------
+
+All documentation is available on the [Nomad website](https://www.nomadproject.io).
+
+Developing Nomad
+--------------------
+
+If you wish to work on Nomad itself or any of its built-in systems,
+you'll first need [Go](https://www.golang.org) installed on your
+machine (version 1.4+ is *required*).
+
+For local dev first make sure Go is properly installed, including setting up a
+[GOPATH](https://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH). After setting up Go, you can
+download the required build tools such as vet, cover, godep etc by bootstrapping
+your environment.
+
+```sh
+$ make bootstrap
+...
+```
+
+Next, clone this repository into `$GOPATH/src/github.com/hashicorp/nomad`.
+Then type `make test`. This will run the tests. If this exits with exit status 0,
+then everything is working!
+
+```sh
+$ make test
+...
+```
+
+To compile a development version of Nomad, run `make`. This will put the
+Nomad binary in the `bin` and `$GOPATH/bin` folders:
+
+```sh
+$ make
+...
+$ bin/nomad
+...
+```