diff --git a/BUILD.md b/BUILD.md
index 923c4e070..fe7f442f6 100644
--- a/BUILD.md
+++ b/BUILD.md
@@ -103,6 +103,14 @@ or
 git clone https://github.com/wavetermdev/waveterm.git
 ```
 
+## Install code dependencies
+
+The first time you clone the repo, you'll need to run the following to load the dependencies. If you ever have issues building the app, try running this again:
+
+```sh
+task init
+```
+
 ## Build and Run
 
 All the methods below will install Node and Go dependencies when they run the first time. All these should be run from within the Git repository.
diff --git a/Taskfile.yml b/Taskfile.yml
index 909346ebc..d1212deeb 100644
--- a/Taskfile.yml
+++ b/Taskfile.yml
@@ -321,6 +321,13 @@ tasks:
             - task: dev:cleardata:linux
             - task: dev:cleardata:macos
 
+    init:
+        desc: Initialize the project for development.
+        cmds:
+            - yarn
+            - go mod tidy
+            - cd docs && yarn
+
     dev:cleardata:windows:
         internal: true
         platforms: [windows]