diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c8984e9..07f5fb9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -31,7 +31,23 @@ To get this code if you don't already have it:
 $ git clone https://github.com/clamsproject/mmif-visualizer
 ```
 
+## Quick start
 
+If you just want to get the server up and running quickly, the repository contains a shell script `start_visualizer.sh` to immediately launch the visualizer in a container. You can invoke it with the following command:
+
+```
+./start_visualizer.sh <data_directory> <mount_directory>
+```
+
+* The **required**  `data_directory` argument should be the absolute or relative path of the media files on your machine which the MMIF files reference.
+* The **optional** `mount_directory` argument should be specified if your MMIF files point to a different directory than where your media files are stored on the host machine. For example, if your video, audio, and text data is stored locally at `/home/archive` but your MMIF files refer to `/data/...`, you should set this variable to `/data`. (If this variable is not set, the mount directory will default to the data directory)
+
+For example, if your media files are stored at `/llc_data` and your MMIF files specify the document location as `"location": "file:///data/...`, you can start the visualizer with the following command: 
+```
+./start_visualizer.sh /llc_data /data
+```
+
+The server can then be accessed at `http://localhost:5000/upload`
 
 ## Running the server in a container
 
diff --git a/app.py b/app.py
index 5e53c65..7294b59 100644
--- a/app.py
+++ b/app.py
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ def upload_file(in_mmif):
 
     agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent')
     if 'curl' in agent.lower():
-        return f"Visualization ID is {viz_id}\nYou can access the visualized file at /display/{viz_id}\n"
+        return f"Visualization ID is {viz_id}\nYou can access the visualized file at {request.url_root}display/{viz_id}\n"
     return redirect(f"/display/{viz_id}", code=301)
 
 
diff --git a/start_visualizer.sh b/start_visualizer.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..a23ccc4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/start_visualizer.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+# Check for presence of Docker/Podman engines
+if command -v docker &> /dev/null
+then
+    export container_engine=docker
+elif command -v podman &> /dev/null
+then
+    export container_engine=podman
+else
+    echo "Error: Docker or Podman not found. Please install container engine and try again."
+    exit 1
+fi
+# Return if no inputs passed
+if [ -z "$1" ]
+then
+    echo "Error: no data directory specified."
+    exit 1
+fi
+# Set data directory to absolute path of input
+export datadir=$( cd $1; pwd )
+# Set mount directory to data directory if not specified
+if [ -z "$2" ]
+then
+    echo "No mount directory specified: defaulting to $datadir"
+    export mountdir=$datadir
+else
+    export mountdir=$2
+fi
+# Start visualizer
+$container_engine build . -f Containerfile -t clams-mmif-visualizer
+$container_engine run -d --name clams-mmif-visualizer --rm -p 5000:5000 -e PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 -v $datadir:$mountdir -v $datadir:/app/static/$mountdir clams-mmif-visualizer
+echo "MMIF Visualizer is running in the background and can be accessed at http://localhost:5000/. To shut it down, run '$container_engine kill clams-mmif-visualizer'"
\ No newline at end of file