diff --git a/shell.nix b/shell.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fd22b8ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shell.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
+pkgs.mkShell {
+  # included by default (since we're not using mkShellNoCC) are:
+  #    bash coreutils file findutils gawk gnugrep gnused
+  #    gnutar gzip bzip2 xz diffutils patch
+  #    binutils gcc glibc gnumake
+  packages = with pkgs;
+    # custom texliveBasic - metafont and ectt are required to build PDF documentation
+    let
+       texliveCustom = texliveBasic.withPackages (ps: [ps.metafont ps.ec]);
+    in [
+      # Additional requirements for building and running Autoconf itself
+      m4
+      perl
+
+      # Additional requirements for building from a pristine git checkout
+      automake
+      git
+      help2man
+      texinfo
+      texliveCustom
+
+      # Needed only to run the test suite comprehensively
+      # TODO: Make a variant that uses mkShellNoCC and *doesn't* install any
+      # of this and ensure that every test that probes some of them is
+      # skipped, rather than failing, when run in that environment.
+      # Currently lots of tests fail in the absence of a C compiler.
+
+      # Compilers and tools that Autoconf is capable of probing
+      bison
+      erlang
+      flex
+      gccgo
+      gfortran
+      libtool
+      # Objective-C compiler seems not to be available
+      # shtool is not available
+
+      # Needed to test AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_SEARCH_LIBS
+      zlib
+
+  ];
+}