diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 67776c3..7af91a9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -132,6 +132,23 @@ bundle exec rake db:drop
 See the [API documentation][api] for information on how to interact with the
 service.
 
+## Documentation
+
+Necessary documentation to operate, use, maintain, and contribute to the service
+is included in this repository. The majority of these documents are written in
+Markdown and can be rendered directly in GitHub or you favorite IDE. However,
+the documentation as a whole is meant to be converted to a static site using
+[MkDocs].
+
+In order to view the documentation in its intended form locally, you can use the
+included docker container. Simply run the following:
+
+```bash
+docker compose --profile docs up -d
+```
+
+The documentation should then be available at http://localhost:8000.
+
 [.env]: https://github.com/codeforamerica/document-transfer-service/blob/main/sample.env
 [api]: ./api.md
 [create-key]: ./runbooks/create_auth_key.md
@@ -140,6 +157,7 @@ service.
 [Dockerfile]: https://github.com/codeforamerica/document-transfer-service/blob/main/Dockerfile
 [docker compose]: https://github.com/codeforamerica/document-transfer-service/blob/main/docker-compose.yaml
 [Docker Desktop]: https://docs.docker.com/desktop/
+[mkdocs]: https://www.mkdocs.org/
 [omz]: https://ohmyz.sh/
 [ruby-version]: https://github.com/codeforamerica/document-transfer-service/blob/main/.ruby-version
 [rvm]: https://rvm.io/
diff --git a/docker-compose.yaml b/docker-compose.yaml
index f97df50..e1d1eb6 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -46,5 +46,15 @@ services:
     <<: *service-defaults
     command: ./script/worker run
 
+  docs:
+    profiles:
+      - docs
+    build:
+      dockerfile: docs.dockerfile
+    ports:
+      - "8000:8000"
+    volumes:
+      - .:/docs
+
 volumes:
   postgres:
diff --git a/docs.dockerfile b/docs.dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8c4c4a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs.dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+FROM squidfunk/mkdocs-material:latest
+
+# Install PlantUML so we can render UML diagrams.
+RUN pip install plantuml_markdown
+RUN apk add --no-cache plantuml --repository=https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community \
+    && rm -rf /var/cache/apk/*