diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 51050b780..a027fa1a5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -31,9 +31,10 @@ Developing Terraform
 
 If you wish to work on Terraform itself or any of its built-in providers, you'll first need [Go](http://www.golang.org) installed on your machine (version 1.8+ is *required*). Alternatively, you can use the Vagrantfile in the root of this repo to stand up a virtual machine with the appropriate dev tooling already set up for you.
 
-Note that as of Terraform 0.10, most providers are no longer built in, and instead are located in their own repositories in the [terraform-providers](https://github.com/terraform-providers) organization on GitHub. Instructions for developing each provider are in the associated README file.
+This repository contains only Terraform core, which includes the command line interface and the main graph engine. Providers are implemented as plugins that each have their own repository in [the `terraform-providers` organization](https://github.com/terraform-providers) on GitHub. Instructions for developing each provider are in the associated README file. For more information, see [the provider development overview](https://www.terraform.io/docs/plugins/provider.html).
 
-For local dev first make sure Go is properly installed, including setting up a [GOPATH](http://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH). You will also need to add `$GOPATH/bin` to your `$PATH`.
+For local development of Terraform core, first make sure Go is properly installed and that a
+[GOPATH](http://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH) has been set. You will also need to add `$GOPATH/bin` to your `$PATH`.
 
 Next, using [Git](https://git-scm.com/), clone this repository into `$GOPATH/src/github.com/hashicorp/terraform`. All the necessary dependencies are either vendored or automatically installed, so you just need to type `make`. This will compile the code and then run the tests. If this exits with exit status 0, then everything is working!
 
diff --git a/website/docs/plugins/provider.html.md b/website/docs/plugins/provider.html.md
index 3e51fddac..fe1dad59f 100644
--- a/website/docs/plugins/provider.html.md
+++ b/website/docs/plugins/provider.html.md
@@ -32,6 +32,59 @@ of this page will assume you're familiar with
 [plugin basics](/docs/plugins/basics.html) and that you already have
 a basic development environment setup.
 
+## Provider Plugin Codebases
+
+Provider plugins live outside of the Terraform core codebase in their own
+source code repositories. The official set of provider plugins released by
+HashiCorp (developed by both HashiCorp staff and community contributors)
+all live in repositories in
+[the `terraform-providers` organization](https://github.com/terraform-providers)
+on GitHub, but third-party plugins can be maintained in any source code
+repository.
+
+When developing a provider plugin, it is recommended to use a common `GOPATH`
+that includes both the core Terraform repository and the repositories of any
+providers being changed. This makes it easier to use a locally-built
+`terraform` executable and a set of locally-built provider plugins together
+without further configuration.
+
+For example, to download both Terraform and the `template` provider into
+`GOPATH`:
+
+```
+$ go get github.com/hashicorp/terraform
+$ go get github.com/terraform-providers/terraform-provider-template
+```
+
+These two packages are both "main" packages that can be built into separate
+executables with `go install`:
+
+```
+$ go install github.com/hashicorp/terraform
+$ go install github.com/terraform-providers/terraform-provider-template
+```
+
+After running the above commands, both Terraform core and the `template`
+provider will both be installed in the current `GOPATH` and `$GOPATH/bin`
+will contain both `terraform` and `terraform-provider-template` executables.
+This `terraform` executable will find and use the `template` provider plugin
+alongside it in the `bin` directory in preference to downloading and installing
+an official release.
+
+When constructing a new provider from scratch, it's recommended to follow
+a similar repository structure as for the existing providers, with the main
+package in the repository root and a library package in a subdirectory named
+after the provider. For more information, see
+[the custom providers guide](/guides/writing-custom-terraform-providers.html).
+
+When making changes only to files within the provider repository, it is _not_
+necessary to re-build the main Terraform executable. Note that some packages
+from the Terraform repository are used as library dependencies by providers,
+such as `github.com/hashicorp/terraform/helper/schema`; it is recommended to
+use `govendor` to create a local vendor copy of the relevant packages in the
+provider repository, as can be seen in the repositories within the
+`terraform-providers` GitHub organization.
+
 ## Low-Level Interface
 
 The interface you must implement for providers is