diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ff9a71490304b76ded5b84d5f9ff011e7a894400..e7f8c23c15f2aedbe077991d596f07f9f47bc05c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -19,7 +19,11 @@ You can also use virtualenv with the supplied `requirements.txt`.
 
 ## development
 
-Before running uffd, you need to create the database with `flask db upgrade`.
+Clone this repository with the `--recurse-submodules` flag to retrieve submodule dependencies.
+
+Before running uffd, you need to create the database with `flask db upgrade`. The database is placed in
+`instance/uffd.sqlit3`.
+
 Then use `flask run` to start the application:
 
 ```