diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8235ebe..8553187 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -62,5 +62,5 @@ vendor
 /scrutiny-web-linux-amd64
 scrutiny-*.db
 scrutiny_test.db
-
+scrutiny.yaml
 coverage.txt
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 5c25a16..ef2f719 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -29,9 +29,38 @@ cd webapp/frontend && ng build --watch --output-path=../../dist --deploy-url="/w
 > Note: if you do not add `--prod` flag, app will display mocked data for api calls.
 
 ### Backend
+
+If you're using the `ng build` command above to generate your frontend, you'll need to create a custom config file and
+override the `web.src.frontend.path` value.
+
 ```
-go run webapp/backend/cmd/scrutiny/scrutiny.go start --config ./example.scrutiny.yaml
+# config file for local development. store as scrutiny.yaml
+version: 1
+
+web:
+  listen:
+    port: 8080
+    host: 0.0.0.0
+  database:
+    # can also set absolute path here
+    location: ./scrutiny.db
+  src:
+    frontend:
+      path: ./dist
+
+
+log:
+  file: 'web.log' #absolute or relative paths allowed, eg. web.log
+  level: DEBUG
+
 ```
+
+Once you've created a config file, you can pass it to the scrutiny binary during startup.
+
+```
+go run webapp/backend/cmd/scrutiny/scrutiny.go start --config ./scrutiny.yaml
+```
+
 Now visit http://localhost:8080
 
 
diff --git a/example.scrutiny.yaml b/example.scrutiny.yaml
index 494ba4d..8518d56 100644
--- a/example.scrutiny.yaml
+++ b/example.scrutiny.yaml
@@ -22,10 +22,10 @@ web:
     host: 0.0.0.0
   database:
     # can also set absolute path here
-    location: ./scrutiny.db
+    location: /scrutiny/config/scrutiny.db
   src:
     frontend:
-      path: ./dist
+      path: /scrutiny/web
 
 
 log: