diff --git a/mcli b/mcli
index 7245bb0a25246ebbfcfceb4eb09ea6c35bc2d5cc..ea8a5c24d0ed81d1cc07e83901b1d302363061cf 100755
--- a/mcli
+++ b/mcli
@@ -53,6 +53,8 @@ count-all [-f|--force]
     If -f or --force is given, refresh indexes before counting (equivalent to count-streams and index-extensions)
 setup
     Initialize Python environment required by extractors
+setup-debug
+    (Re)create .env file used by the Python debugger launch config
 extract-rdf
     Run the extractor to generate RDF from text sources
 extract-mp3 [-y|--yes-overwrite]
@@ -238,6 +240,14 @@ count-all)
 setup)
     "$SCRIPTS_DIR/setup.sh"
     ;;
+setup-debug)
+    envfile="$SCRIPTS_DIR/.env"
+    echo "VERSION='$VERSION'" > "$envfile"
+    echo "MACAO_ROOT='$MACAO_ROOT'" >> "$envfile"
+    echo "SOURCES_DIR='$SOURCES_DIR'" >> "$envfile"
+    echo "SCRIPTS_DIR='$SCRIPTS_DIR'" >> "$envfile"
+    echo "RESULTS_DIR='$RESULTS_DIR'" >> "$envfile"
+    ;;
 convert)
     activate_venv
     python "$SCRIPTS_DIR/src/main.py"
diff --git a/tetras_extraction/script/.gitignore b/tetras_extraction/script/.gitignore
index 7e7d3fc524239e8d11aa5c39a47b38f04c96ccf1..be2b20a333f3b64d522c241f8d4df9db6f8c1893 100644
--- a/tetras_extraction/script/.gitignore
+++ b/tetras_extraction/script/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 # Python cache and runtime env
 __pycache__/
 venv/
+.env
diff --git a/tetras_extraction/script/.vscode/launch.json b/tetras_extraction/script/.vscode/launch.json
index 15f1806c1d56e6db5b32929efc187b098e546414..a98355be67884e272ff9b05314624bc82389c740 100644
--- a/tetras_extraction/script/.vscode/launch.json
+++ b/tetras_extraction/script/.vscode/launch.json
@@ -9,28 +9,32 @@
             "type": "debugpy",
             "request": "launch",
             "program": "src/extract.py",
-            "console": "integratedTerminal"
+            "console": "integratedTerminal",
+            "envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env"
         },
         {
             "name": "Python: transform",
             "type": "debugpy",
             "request": "launch",
             "program": "src/transform.py",
-            "console": "integratedTerminal"
+            "console": "integratedTerminal",
+            "envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env"
         },
         {
             "name": "Python: export",
             "type": "debugpy",
             "request": "launch",
             "program": "src/export.py",
-            "console": "integratedTerminal"
+            "console": "integratedTerminal",
+            "envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env"
         },
         {
             "name": "Python: main",
             "type": "debugpy",
             "request": "launch",
             "program": "src/main.py",
-            "console": "integratedTerminal"
+            "console": "integratedTerminal",
+            "envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env"
         }
     ]
 }
\ No newline at end of file