diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 0d20b64..bf45d22 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1,4 @@
+*.egg-info
 *.pyc
+build/
+dist/
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f73d473..1e5a5fe 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -74,6 +74,17 @@ submodule; be sure to commit your changes before running `./install`, otherwise
 the old version of Dotbot will be checked out by the install script. If using a
 subrepo, run `git fetch && git checkout origin/master` in the Dotbot directory.
 
+If you prefer, you can install Dotbot from [PyPI] and call it as a command-line
+program:
+
+```bash
+pip install dotbot
+touch install.conf.yaml
+```
+
+In this case, rather than running `./install`, you can invoke Dotbot with
+`dotbot -c <path to configuration file>`.
+
 ### Full Example
 
 Here's an example of a complete configuration.
@@ -366,12 +377,22 @@ Contributing
 Do you have a feature request, bug report, or patch? Great! See
 [CONTRIBUTING.md][contributing] for information on what you can do about that.
 
+Packaging
+---------
+
+1. Update version information.
+
+2. Build the package using ``python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel``.
+
+3. Sign and upload the package using ``twine upload -s dist/*``.
+
 License
 -------
 
 Copyright (c) 2014-2018 Anish Athalye. Released under the MIT License. See
 [LICENSE.md][license] for details.
 
+[PyPI]: https://pypi.org/project/dotbot/
 [init-dotfiles]: https://github.com/Vaelatern/init-dotfiles
 [dotfiles-template]: https://github.com/anishathalye/dotfiles_template
 [inspiration]: https://github.com/anishathalye/dotbot/wiki/Users
diff --git a/dotbot/__init__.py b/dotbot/__init__.py
index 1d03464..20ec150 100644
--- a/dotbot/__init__.py
+++ b/dotbot/__init__.py
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
 from .cli import main
 from .plugin import Plugin
+
+__version__ = '1.12.1'
diff --git a/dotbot/cli.py b/dotbot/cli.py
index 8febb26..0674cbe 100644
--- a/dotbot/cli.py
+++ b/dotbot/cli.py
@@ -7,25 +7,29 @@ from .messenger import Messenger
 from .messenger import Level
 from .util import module
 
+import dotbot
+import yaml
+
 def add_options(parser):
-    parser.add_argument('-Q', '--super-quiet', dest='super_quiet', action='store_true',
+    parser.add_argument('-Q', '--super-quiet', action='store_true',
         help='suppress almost all output')
-    parser.add_argument('-q', '--quiet', dest='quiet', action='store_true',
+    parser.add_argument('-q', '--quiet', action='store_true',
         help='suppress most output')
-    parser.add_argument('-v', '--verbose', dest='verbose', action='store_true',
+    parser.add_argument('-v', '--verbose', action='store_true',
         help='enable verbose output')
     parser.add_argument('-d', '--base-directory',
-        dest='base_directory', help='execute commands from within BASEDIR',
-        metavar='BASEDIR', required=True)
-    parser.add_argument('-c', '--config-file', dest='config_file',
-        help='run commands given in CONFIGFILE', metavar='CONFIGFILE',
-        required=True)
+        help='execute commands from within BASEDIR',
+        metavar='BASEDIR')
+    parser.add_argument('-c', '--config-file',
+        help='run commands given in CONFIGFILE', metavar='CONFIGFILE')
     parser.add_argument('-p', '--plugin', action='append', dest='plugins', default=[],
         help='load PLUGIN as a plugin', metavar='PLUGIN')
-    parser.add_argument('--disable-built-in-plugins', dest='disable_built_in_plugins',
+    parser.add_argument('--disable-built-in-plugins',
         action='store_true', help='disable built-in plugins')
     parser.add_argument('--plugin-dir', action='append', dest='plugin_dirs', default=[],
         metavar='PLUGIN_DIR', help='load all plugins in PLUGIN_DIR')
+    parser.add_argument('--version', action='store_true',
+        help='show program\'s version number and exit')
 
 def read_config(config_file):
     reader = ConfigReader(config_file)
@@ -37,6 +41,9 @@ def main():
         parser = ArgumentParser()
         add_options(parser)
         options = parser.parse_args()
+        if options.version:
+            print('Dotbot version %s (yaml: %s)' % (dotbot.__version__, yaml.__version__))
+            exit(0)
         if options.super_quiet:
             log.set_level(Level.WARNING)
         if options.quiet:
@@ -55,11 +62,19 @@ def main():
         for plugin_path in plugin_paths:
             abspath = os.path.abspath(plugin_path)
             module.load(abspath)
+        if not options.config_file:
+            log.error('No configuration file specified')
+            exit(1)
         tasks = read_config(options.config_file)
         if not isinstance(tasks, list):
             raise ReadingError('Configuration file must be a list of tasks')
-        os.chdir(options.base_directory)
-        dispatcher = Dispatcher(options.base_directory)
+        if options.base_directory:
+            base_directory = options.base_directory
+        else:
+            # default to directory of config file
+            base_directory = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(options.config_file))
+        os.chdir(base_directory)
+        dispatcher = Dispatcher(base_directory)
         success = dispatcher.dispatch(tasks)
         if success:
             log.info('\n==> All tasks executed successfully')
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3c6e79c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[bdist_wheel]
+universal=1
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..93ba954
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+from setuptools import setup
+from codecs import open # For a consistent encoding
+from os import path
+import re
+
+
+here = path.dirname(__file__)
+
+
+with open(path.join(here, 'README.md'), encoding='utf-8') as f:
+    long_description = f.read()
+
+
+def read(*names, **kwargs):
+    with open(
+        path.join(here, *names),
+        encoding=kwargs.get("encoding", "utf8")
+    ) as fp:
+        return fp.read()
+
+
+def find_version(*file_paths):
+    version_file = read(*file_paths)
+    version_match = re.search(r"^__version__ = ['\"]([^'\"]*)['\"]",
+                              version_file, re.M)
+    if version_match:
+        return version_match.group(1)
+    raise RuntimeError("Unable to find version string.")
+
+
+setup(
+    name='dotbot',
+
+    version=find_version('dotbot', '__init__.py'),
+
+    description='A tool that bootstraps your dotfiles',
+    long_description=long_description,
+    long_description_content_type='text/markdown',
+
+    url='https://github.com/anishathalye/dotbot',
+
+    author='Anish Athalye',
+    author_email='me@anishathalye.com',
+
+    license='MIT',
+
+    classifiers=[
+        'Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable',
+
+        'Intended Audience :: Developers',
+
+        'License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License',
+
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 2',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.2',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.3',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.4',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5',
+        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6',
+
+        'Topic :: Utilities',
+    ],
+
+    keywords='dotfiles',
+
+    packages=['dotbot'],
+
+    install_requires=[
+        'PyYAML>=3.12,<4',
+    ],
+
+    # To provide executable scripts, use entry points in preference to the
+    # "scripts" keyword. Entry points provide cross-platform support and allow
+    # pip to create the appropriate form of executable for the target platform.
+    entry_points={
+        'console_scripts': [
+            'dotbot=dotbot:main',
+        ],
+    },
+)
diff --git a/test/test-lib.bash b/test/test-lib.bash
index 7b5e9ca..e4d9a4e 100644
--- a/test/test-lib.bash
+++ b/test/test-lib.bash
@@ -48,14 +48,14 @@ initialize() {
 run_dotbot() {
     (
         cat > "${DOTFILES}/${INSTALL_CONF}"
-        ${DOTBOT_EXEC} -d "${DOTFILES}" -c "${DOTFILES}/${INSTALL_CONF}" "${@}"
+        ${DOTBOT_EXEC} -c "${DOTFILES}/${INSTALL_CONF}" "${@}"
     )
 }
 
 run_dotbot_json() {
     (
         cat > "${DOTFILES}/${INSTALL_CONF_JSON}"
-        ${DOTBOT_EXEC} -d "${DOTFILES}" -c "${DOTFILES}/${INSTALL_CONF_JSON}" "${@}"
+        ${DOTBOT_EXEC} -c "${DOTFILES}/${INSTALL_CONF_JSON}" "${@}"
     )
 }