diff --git a/automamba/README.md b/automamba/README.md
index 85c0c0c..34edd36 100644
--- a/automamba/README.md
+++ b/automamba/README.md
@@ -1,13 +1,24 @@
 works on Windows and Linux, however Linux does not
 automatically acquire a compiler like Windows does (not yet at least!).
 
+if you want to change the packages installed by default,
+you'll need to edit the `main_packages` and `pypi_packages`
+arrays within the script.
+
 ### examples
 
-* `automamba --create` 
-  create a new environment. do this once in a while to keep your packages up to date.
 * `automamba hello.py` 
   invoke python to execute a local python file.
   a new environment will be created if none have been made.
+* `automamba -c 'print("Hello, world!")'` 
+  same as the above, but with the program given on the command-line instead.
+* `automamba --create` 
+  create a new environment. do this once in a while to keep your packages up to date.
+* `AM_ENV=aws automamba --create -c conda-forge 'awscli>=2,<3'` 
+  create an environment called "aws" and install `awscli` version 2
+  from the conda-forge channel.
+* `AM_ENV=aws automamba -m awscli ec2 describe-instances` 
+  run an AWS command using the previously created environment.
 * `automamba --pip install scipybiteopt==1.2` 
   invoke pip to build and install a package. MSVC will be installed if it isn't already,
   since this example requires a C++ compiler.