diff --git a/compose/template.yml b/compose/template.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad2b9e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compose/template.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# Project-specific config.
+#
+# All paths must be defined relative to `compose/services.yml` regardless of
+# the location of this file, i.e. refer to `my-open-balena-checkout/somedir`
+# as `../somedir`. This is because of the way docker-compose handles paths
+# when specifying multiple configs and open-balena always specifying
+# `compose/services.yml` as the "base" config.
+#
+# You may view the effective config with `scripts/run-fig-command config`.
+version: '2.1'
diff --git a/scripts/start-project b/scripts/start-project
index 10c5844..db00f26 100755
--- a/scripts/start-project
+++ b/scripts/start-project
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ set -e
 
 CMD=$0
 DIR=$(dirname "$CMD")
+BASE_DIR=$(dirname "$DIR")
 
 PROJECT_NAME=${1:-demo}
 HOST_NAME=${2:-openbalena.local}
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ $("${DIR}/make-env" \
 STR
 
 echo_bold "==> Adding default compose file..."
-echo "version: '2.1'" >"${PROJECT_DIR}/docker-compose.yml"
+cp "${BASE_DIR}/compose/template.yml" "${PROJECT_DIR}/docker-compose.yml"
 
 # FIXME: should be explicitly requested via a flag
 echo_bold "==> Patching /etc/hosts..."