diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e3fb03b09..206533b60 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@ cabal.project.freeze
 cabal.project.local*
 .vscode/
 
+# artifacts of the setup script
+dev_setup.log
+env.sh
+
 # don't check in generated documentation
 #docs/CryptolPrims.pdf
 #docs/ProgrammingCryptol.pdf
@@ -41,4 +45,4 @@ cryptol.wixobj
 cryptol.wixpdb
 
 # happy-generated files
-src/Cryptol/Parser.hs
\ No newline at end of file
+src/Cryptol/Parser.hs
diff --git a/dev_setup.sh b/dev_setup.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..45a0a7f01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev_setup.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,216 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# cryptol setup script
+#
+# Supported distribution(s):
+#  * macOS 14 (AArch64)
+#
+# This script installs everything needed to get a working development
+# environment for cryptol. Any new environment requirements should be
+# added to this script. This script is not interactive but it may define
+# some environment variables that need to be loaded after it runs.
+#
+# There is some half-baked support for macOS 12 (x86_64), but it hasn't been
+# tested.
+#
+
+set -e
+
+HERE=$(cd `dirname $0`; pwd)
+LOG=$HERE/dev_setup.log
+ROOT=$HERE
+
+# Create a new, empty file for environment variables
+VAR_FILE=$ROOT/env.sh
+truncate -s 0 $VAR_FILE
+echo "# Generated environment variables. Manual changes will get clobbered by dev_setup.sh" >> $VAR_FILE
+
+GHC_VERSION="9.4.8"
+CABAL_VERSION="3.10.3.0"
+
+WHAT4_SOLVERS_SNAPSHOT="snapshot-20240212"
+WHAT4_SOLVERS_URL="https://github.com/GaloisInc/what4-solvers/releases/download/$WHAT4_SOLVERS_SNAPSHOT/"
+WHAT4_SOLVERS_MACOS_12="macos-12-X64-bin.zip"
+WHAT4_SOLVERS_MACOS_14="macos-14-ARM64-bin.zip"
+WHAT4_CVC4_VERSION="version 1.8"
+WHAT4_CVC5_VERSION="version 1.1.1"
+
+# Set of supported platforms:
+MACOS14="macos14"
+MACOS12="macos12" # actually, this isn't supported yet
+
+USED_BREW=false
+
+# Returns a string indicating the platform (from the set above), or empty if
+# a supported platform is not detected.
+function supported_platform {
+    # Make sure we're running on a supported platform
+    case $(uname -s) in
+        Darwin)
+            if [ $(uname -m) = "arm64" ]; then
+                echo $MACOS14
+            # This is how we'd support macOS 12. Since this hasn't been tested yet,
+            # we withhold official support.
+            # This might bork on something running macOS <12, since we're basing
+            # the it on the hardware, not the specific version.
+            elif [ $(uname -m) = "x86_64" ]; then
+                echo ""
+            fi;;
+        *) echo ""
+    esac
+}
+
+RED="\033[0;31m"
+function notice {
+    echo "[NOTICE] $*"
+}
+
+function is_installed {
+    command -v "$@" >/dev/null 2>&1
+}
+
+# Requires: LOG set to log file path.
+function logged {
+    if ! [ -z "$LOG" ]
+    then
+        # This may or may not be the same directory that this script lives in.
+        mkdir -p `dirname $LOG`
+        echo "$@" >>$LOG
+        if ! "$@" >>$LOG 2>&1
+        then
+            echo
+            tail -n 50 $LOG
+            echo
+            echo "[ERROR] An error occurred; please see $LOG"
+            echo "[ERROR] The last 50 lines are printed above for convenience"
+            exit 1
+        fi
+    fi
+}
+
+function update_submodules {
+    cd $ROOT
+    notice "Updating submodules"
+    logged git submodule update --init
+}
+
+function install_ghcup {
+    if ! is_installed ghcup; then
+        notice "Installing GHCup via Homebrew"
+        # Manually install Haskel toolchain. If this doesn't work, try
+        # using the install script at https://www.haskell.org/ghcup/
+        if [ $CRYPTOL_PLATFORM = $MACOS12 ] || [ $CRYPTOL_PLATFORM = $MACOS14 ]; then
+            logged brew install ghcup
+            USED_BREW=true
+        else
+            notice "Did not install GHCup. This script only supports macOS 14"
+        fi
+    else
+        notice "Using existing GHCup installation"
+    fi
+
+    notice "Installing ghc and cabal via GHCup"
+    logged ghcup install ghc $GHC_VERSION
+    logged ghcup install cabal $CABAL_VERSION
+    logged ~/.ghcup/bin/cabal-$CABAL_VERSION update
+
+    if ! is_installed ghc || ! is_installed cabal; then
+        echo "export PATH=$PATH:~/.ghcup/bin" >> $VAR_FILE
+    fi
+
+}
+
+function install_gmp {
+    if [ $CRYPTOL_PLATFORM = $MACOS12 ] || [ $CRYPTOL_PLATFORM = $MACOS14 ]; then
+        notice "Installing GMP via Homebrew, if it's not already installed"
+        logged brew install gmp
+        USED_BREW=true
+    else
+        notice "Did not install GMP. This script only supports macOS 14"
+    fi
+}
+
+# Installs the two solvers required to run the test suite for the repo.
+# Users may want to install other solvers, and indeed the what4 solvers repo
+# includes a half dozen other solvers that are compatible with cryptol. 
+function install_solvers {
+
+    # Install the latest z3
+    if ! is_installed z3; then
+        notice "Installing z3 solver via Homebrew"
+        logged brew install z3
+        USED_BREW=true
+    fi
+
+    # Install other solvers using the cryptol-approved set of binaries
+    if ! is_installed cvc4 || ! is_installed cvc5; then
+        notice "Installing cvc4 and/or cvc5 solvers from $WHAT4_SOLVERS_URL"
+
+        if [ $CRYPTOL_PLATFORM = $MACOS14 ]; then
+            solvers_version=$WHAT4_SOLVERS_MACOS_14
+        elif [ $CRYPTOL_PLATFORM = $MACOS12 ]; then
+            solvers_version=$WHAT4_SOLVERS_MACOS_12
+        fi
+
+        solvers_dir=$(mktemp -d)
+        logged curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSfL -o "$solvers_dir/solvers.bin.zip" "$WHAT4_SOLVERS_URL$solvers_version"
+        cd $solvers_dir
+        logged unzip solvers.bin.zip
+        
+        # If we want to install more solvers by default, we can do so here
+        for solver in cvc4 cvc5; do
+            if ! is_installed $solver ; then
+                notice "Installing $solver"
+                chmod u+x $solver
+                sudo mv $solver /usr/local/bin
+            fi
+        done
+
+        cd $HERE
+        rm -r $solvers_dir
+    else
+        notice "Not installing cvc4 or cvc5 solvers because they already exist"
+
+        # Make sure the installed versions are the versions that have been tested
+        version_file=$(mktemp)
+        cvc4 --version > $version_file
+        if ! (grep -q "$WHAT4_CVC4_VERSION" $version_file); then
+            notice "Your version of cvc4 is unexpected; expected $WHAT4_CVC4_VERSION"
+            notice "Got: $(grep 'cvc4 version' $version_file)"
+            notice "To ensure compatibility, you might want to uninstall the "\
+                "existing version and re-run this script."
+        fi
+        cvc5 --version > $version_file
+        if ! (grep -q "$WHAT4_CVC5_VERSION" $version_file); then
+            notice "Your version of cvc5 is unexpected; expected $WHAT4_CVC5_VERSION"
+            notice "Got: $(grep "cvc5 version" $version_file)"
+            notice "To ensure compatibility, you might want to uninstall the "\
+                "existing version and re-run this script."
+        fi
+    fi
+}
+
+function put_brew_in_path {
+    if $USED_BREW; then
+        # `brew --prefix` is different on macOS 12 and macOS 14
+        echo "export CPATH=$(brew --prefix)/include" >> $VAR_FILE
+        echo "export LIBRARY_PATH=$(brew --prefix)/lib" >> $VAR_FILE
+    fi
+}
+
+
+# Make sure script is running on a supported platform
+CRYPTOL_PLATFORM=$(supported_platform)
+if [ -z "$CRYPTOL_PLATFORM" ]; then
+    echo "Unsupported platform"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+update_submodules
+install_ghcup
+install_gmp
+install_solvers
+put_brew_in_path
+
+notice "You may need to source new environment variables added here:\n" \
+    "\$ source $VAR_FILE"