diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 3140ada6..db760767 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -81,9 +81,6 @@ target/
 profile_default/
 ipython_config.py
 
-# pyenv
-.python-version
-
 # pipenv
 #   According to pypa/pipenv#598, it is recommended to include Pipfile.lock in version control.
 #   However, in case of collaboration, if having platform-specific dependencies or dependencies
diff --git a/.python-version b/.python-version
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fdcfcfdf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.python-version
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+3.12
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 493ec115..8372393d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ To get an overview of how Heroku deployment works, we recommend reading this fir
 1. `Procfile`
    - Comes with default `web`, `worker` and `beat` processes.
    - Additionally, there's a `release` phase to run migrations safely, before releasing the new build.
-1. `runtime.txt`
+1. `.python-version`
    - Simply specifies the Python version to be used.
 1. `requirements.txt`
    - Heroku requires a root-level `requirements.txt`, so we've added that.
diff --git a/runtime.txt b/runtime.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 74d315a8..00000000
--- a/runtime.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-python-3.12.4