diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 271ecdf..191dc54 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@
 A personal functional music programming framework written in Haskell & C and packaged with Nix.
 
 ### Setup
+Ensure that your system's version of ncurses has the following extensions:
+- wide character support
+- term resizing (see `man 3x resizeterm`)
+> TODO: actually list which extensions are used and how to compile with them
+
 ```bash
 nix build && nix develop -i
 ```