diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c9e997a9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+BUGSNAG_KEY=abcd1234
+AMPLITUDE_KEY=acbd1234
+ACLI_VERSION=1.0.0
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 44caf9627..7f5ec4468 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ drupal
 
 cx-api-spec
 gardener
+.env
 
 // Artifacts from mutation testing
 *.cache
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index d31b2a302..a19a3b232 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -66,19 +66,11 @@ Be sure to validate and test your code locally using the provided Composer test
 To test changes in production mode, build and run `acli.phar` using this process. The _build-release_ stage of [`.github/workflows/ci.yml`](.github/workflows/ci.yml) follows a similar process.
 
 1. Install Composer production dependencies: `composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader`
-2. Create a `.env` file with Bugsnag and Amplitude keys
+2. Populate `.env`: `cp .env.example .env`
 3. Clear and rebuild your Symfony caches: `./bin/acli ckc && ./bin/acli cc`
 4. Install Box (only need to do this once): `composer box-install`
 5. Compile phar: `composer box-compile`
 
-### Testing the `update` command
-
-Any changes to the `acli update` command should be manually tested using the following steps:
-
-1. Replace `@package_version@` on this line with `1.0.0` or any older version string: https://github.com/acquia/cli/blob/v1.0.0/bin/acli#L84
-1. Build acli.phar as described above.
-1. Now test: `./var/acli.phar self:update`
-
 ### Writing tests
 
 New code should be covered at 100% (or as close to it as reasonably possible) by PHPUnit tests. It should also minimize the number of escaped mutants (as close to 0% as reasonably possible), which will appear as annotations on your PR after unit tests run.