diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 11789b7..aa6dbab 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ web_modules/
 .env.test.local
 .env.production.local
 .env.local
+fed.env
 
 # parcel-bundler cache (https://parceljs.org/)
 .cache
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5e4e9a6..a677912 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Please refer to our [**official documentation**](https://neurobagel.org/overview
 
 ## Launching the API
 ### 1. Set the Neurobagel nodes to federate over
-Create an `.env` file with the variable `NB_NODES` set to the URLs of the nodes to be federated over. 
+Create a `fed.env` file with the variable `NB_NODES` set to the URLs of the nodes to be federated over. 
 The URLs should be stored as a **space-separated, unquoted** string.
 
 e.g.,
@@ -23,6 +23,6 @@ NB_NODES=https://myfirstnode.org/ https://mysecondnode.org/
 docker pull neurobagel/federation_api
 
 # Make sure to run the next command in the same directory where your .env file is
-docker run -d --name=federation -p 8080:8000 --env-file=.env neurobagel/federation_api
+docker run -d --name=federation -p 8080:8000 --env-file=fed.env neurobagel/federation_api
 ```
 NOTE: You can replace the port number `8080` for the `-p` flag with any port on the host you wish to use for the API.