diff --git a/.envrc b/.envrc
index 3f91c96..da18424 100644
--- a/.envrc
+++ b/.envrc
@@ -5,3 +5,11 @@ else
     # fall back to using direnv's builtin nix support
     use nix
 fi
+
+VIRTUAL_ENV="$PWD/venv"
+if [ ! -e venv ]
+then
+    python -m venv --system-site-packages --without-pip "${VIRTUAL_ENV}"
+fi
+export VIRTUAL_ENV
+PATH_add "$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin"