diff --git a/docs/source/config/intro.rst b/docs/source/config/intro.rst
index d3ab800..af8bc79 100644
--- a/docs/source/config/intro.rst
+++ b/docs/source/config/intro.rst
@@ -112,6 +112,19 @@ At present, this only affects the current session - changes you make to
 config are not saved anywhere. Also, some options are only read when
 IPython starts, so they can't be changed like this.
 
+.. _configure_start_ipython:
+
+Running IPython from Python
+----------------------------
+
+If you are using :ref:`embedding` to start IPython from a normal 
+python file, you can set configuration options the same way as in a 
+config file by creating a traitlets config object and passing it to 
+start_ipython like in the example below.
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../../../examples/Embedding/start_ipython_config.py
+    :language: python
+
 .. _profiles:
 
 Profiles
diff --git a/docs/source/interactive/reference.rst b/docs/source/interactive/reference.rst
index e79d713..ef49565 100644
--- a/docs/source/interactive/reference.rst
+++ b/docs/source/interactive/reference.rst
@@ -604,6 +604,8 @@ You can start a regular IPython session with
 
 at any point in your program.  This will load IPython configuration,
 startup files, and everything, just as if it were a normal IPython session.
+For information on setting configuration options when running IPython from
+python, see :ref:`configure_start_ipython`.
 
 It is also possible to embed an IPython shell in a namespace in your Python code.
 This allows you to evaluate dynamically the state of your code,
diff --git a/examples/Embedding/start_ipython_config.py b/examples/Embedding/start_ipython_config.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..f1fbaca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/Embedding/start_ipython_config.py
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+"""Quick snippet explaining how to set config options when using start_ipython."""
+
+# First create a config object from the traitlets library
+from traitlets.config import Config
+c = Config()
+
+# Now we can set options as we would in a config file: 
+#   c.Class.config_value = value
+# For example, we can set the exec_lines option of the InteractiveShellApp
+# class to run some code when the IPython REPL starts
+c.InteractiveShellApp.exec_lines = [
+    'print("\\nimporting some things\\n")',
+    'import math',
+    "math"
+]
+c.InteractiveShell.colors = 'LightBG'
+c.InteractiveShell.confirm_exit = False
+c.TerminalIPythonApp.display_banner = False
+
+# Now we start ipython with our configuration
+import IPython
+IPython.start_ipython(config=c)