diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 1e4a88f13..ef73dadc3 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -70,6 +70,19 @@ $ uv pip install -e .
 $ source .venv/bin/activate
 ```
 
+Note that you can create a dotenv file `.env` that includes necessary environment variables:
+```
+LLAMA_STACK_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8321
+LLAMA_STACK_CLIENT_LOG=debug
+LLAMA_STACK_PORT=8321
+LLAMA_STACK_CONFIG=
+```
+
+And then use this dotenv file when running client SDK tests via the following:
+```bash
+$ uv run --env-file .env -- pytest -v tests/client-sdk/inference/test_text_inference.py
+```
+
 ## Pre-commit Hooks
 
 We use [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/) to run linting and formatting checks on your code. You can install the pre-commit hooks by running: