diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0f67f5ea6..90c67c71b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -200,7 +200,21 @@ $ python -m nle.scripts.plot
                                        steps
 ```
 
-
+# Configuration file
+
+NetHack allows for players to modify some details about the configuration of the 
+game  (see options [here](https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Options)). Some of these 
+configs may relate to the kind of messages being shown, the visual appearance 
+of the game or define macro-actions. Most NetHack players use such configurations, 
+see [this](https://www.hardfought.org/userdata/b/bouquet/nethack/bouquet.nhrc) 
+for example.
+
+To leverage the full spectrum of possibilities offered by NetHack, the `options`
+arugment in the NetHack [class definition](https://github.com/mklissa/nle/blob/main/nle/nethack/nethack.py#L165)
+needs to receive the location the nethack config file, prefixed by `@`.
+In the case where the config file is in the same directory as the launching script,
+the `options` argument should receive a value of `@.nethackrc` where `.nethackrc`
+is the name of the config file.
 
 # Contributing
 
diff --git a/nle/nethack/nethack.py b/nle/nethack/nethack.py
index d0e2091ed..576f0b9ab 100644
--- a/nle/nethack/nethack.py
+++ b/nle/nethack/nethack.py
@@ -206,7 +206,16 @@ def __init__(
 
         if options is None:
             options = NETHACKOPTIONS
-        self.options = list(options) + ["name:" + playername]
+
+        # Check if the user has passed a configuration file to define the options.
+        # This is done by specifying the options variable as "@.nethackrc", 
+        # where .nethackrc is the file containing the configs.
+        self.options = (
+            list(options) + ["name:" + playername]
+            if options[0][0] != "@"
+            else list(options)
+        )
+
         if playername.split("-", 1)[1:] == ["@"]:
             # Random role. Unless otherwise specified, randomize
             # race/gender/alignment too.