diff --git a/.bazelrc b/.bazelrc
index b2953e0fd..7438b96af 100644
--- a/.bazelrc
+++ b/.bazelrc
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
+# ~~~~ General flags ~~~~
+
 # Common flags
 common --announce_rc
 common --experimental_repo_remote_exec
@@ -28,8 +30,14 @@ test --test_output=errors
 build:cuda --@local_config_cuda//:enable_cuda
 build:cuda --define=using_cuda=true --define=using_cuda_nvcc=true
 
+# Configs for verbose builds & tests
+common:verbose --announce_rc
+common:verbose --auto_output_filter=none
+build:verbose --show_progress_rate_limit=1
+test:verbose --test_summary=detailed
+
 
-##### Sanitizers (choose one, or nosan for none) #####
+# ~~~~ Sanitizers (choose one, or nosan for none) ~~~~
 
 # Shared config for sanitizers
 build:sanitizer --strip=never
@@ -50,7 +58,7 @@ build:msan --linkopt -fsanitize=leak
 build:nosan --
 
 
-##### Instruction set options (choose one) #####
+# ~~~~ Instruction set options (choose one) ~~~~
 
 # Build with AVX2 + FMA
 build:avx --copt -O3
@@ -65,7 +73,7 @@ build:sse --copt -msse4
 build:basic --copt -O3
 
 
-##### Parallelization (choose one, or nopenmp for none) #####
+# ~~~~ Parallelization (choose one, or nopenmp for none) ~~~~
 
 # Build with OpenMP
 build:openmp --copt -fopenmp
@@ -74,7 +82,8 @@ build:openmp --linkopt -lgomp
 # No OpenMP
 build:nopenmp --
 
-##### Memory handler (choose one) #####
+
+# ~~~~ Memory handler (choose one) ~~~~
 
 # Build with tcmalloc
 build:tcmalloc --linkopt="-ltcmalloc"
diff --git a/docs/bazel.md b/docs/bazel.md
index c62aa48f8..990eb80a4 100644
--- a/docs/bazel.md
+++ b/docs/bazel.md
@@ -16,13 +16,16 @@ requires the circuit file to be specified both on the command line and in the
 bazel run --config=avx --config=openmp apps:qsim_base -- -c circuits/circuit_q24
 ```
 
-## Build configs
+## Build configurations
 
 Depending on the optimizers available on your machine, different config flags
 (such as `--config=avx`, above) can be set to control which optimizers are
 included in a given build or test run.
 
-Vector arithmetic optimizers (pick one at most):
+### Vector arithmetic optimizers
+
+Pick at most one of the following options:
+
 ```
 # Use AVX instructions for vector arithmetic.
 --config=avx
@@ -34,7 +37,10 @@ Vector arithmetic optimizers (pick one at most):
 --config=basic
 ```
 
-Parallelism optimizers (pick one at most):
+### Parallelism optimizers
+
+Pick at most one of the following options:
+
 ```
 # Use OpenMP to run operations in parallel when possible.
 --config=openmp
@@ -43,11 +49,26 @@ Parallelism optimizers (pick one at most):
 --config=nopenmp
 ```
 
-Memory allocation (pick one at most):
+### Memory allocators
+
+
+[TCMalloc](https://github.com/google/tcmalloc) is a fast, multithreaded
+implementation of C's `malloc()` and C++'s `new` operator. It is an independent
+open-source library developd by Google. TCMalloc can be used with qsim as an
+alternative to the default `malloc()`. Pick at most one of the following
+options:
+
 ```
-# Use tcmalloc for memory allocation.
+# Use TCMalloc for memory allocation.
 --config=tcmalloc
 
 # Use malloc for memory allocation (default).
 --config=malloc
 ```
+
+### Additional configuration options
+
+To provide more information when building and testing qsim, you can add the
+configuration option `--config=verbose` to any of the `bazel`  commands above.
+
+Other configuration options are described elsewhere in the qsim documentation.