diff --git a/.jvmopts b/.jvmopts
deleted file mode 100644
index baa05f119a..0000000000
--- a/.jvmopts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
--Xmx1024m
diff --git a/docs/contributing.md b/docs/contributing.md
index c2208c1fbf..ce73b99973 100644
--- a/docs/contributing.md
+++ b/docs/contributing.md
@@ -78,6 +78,14 @@ If you want to enable this when you are running a bitcoin-s application, you wil
 
 ## Developer productivity
 
+### sbt
+
+The default scala build tool is [sbt](https://www.scala-sbt.org/).
+
+For the basics of how sbt works see the [sbt guide](https://www.scala-sbt.org/1.x/docs/Getting-Started.html)
+
+One helpful configuration is the env variable `SBT_OPTS` which allows you to pass jvm arguments for sbt.
+
 ### Bloop
 
 If you're tired of waiting around for sbt all day, there's a new,