diff --git a/.flake8 b/.flake8
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ea253c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.flake8
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+[flake8]
+ignore=E203,E501,W503
+max-line-length=88
+application_import_names=rethinkdb
+exclude = .git,__pycache__,tests
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 88f681d..2929236 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ lint: ## run linters against the package
 	mypy rethinkdb
 	bandit -q -r rethinkdb
 	pylint rethinkdb
-	flake8 rethinkdb --count --ignore=E203,E501,W503 --show-source --statistics
+	flake8 rethinkdb --count --show-source --statistics
 
 .PHONY: ql2.proto
 ql2.proto: ## download and convert protobuf file