diff --git a/developer/bootstrap-repo.sh b/developer/bootstrap-repo.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..bd41e59
--- /dev/null
+++ b/developer/bootstrap-repo.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Copyright 2017-present Open Networking Foundation
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# bootstrap-repo.sh
+# Downloads CORD source into ~/cord
+
+set -e -u -o pipefail
+
+# Location of 'cord' directory checked out on the local system
+CORDDIR="${CORDDIR:-${HOME}/cord}"
+
+# CORD versioning
+REPO_BRANCH="${REPO_BRANCH:-master}"
+
+# Parse options
+GERRIT_PATCHES=()
+
+while getopts "hp:" opt; do
+  case ${opt} in
+    h ) echo "Usage for $0:"
+      echo "  -p <project:change/revision> Download a patch from gerrit. Can be repeated."
+      exit 0
+      ;;
+    p ) GERRIT_PATCHES+=("$OPTARG")
+      ;;
+    \? ) echo "Invalid option: -$OPTARG"
+      exit 1
+      ;;
+  esac
+done
+
+if [ ! -x "/usr/local/bin/repo" ]
+then
+  echo "Installing repo..."
+  # v1.23, per https://source.android.com/source/downloading
+  REPO_SHA256SUM="394d93ac7261d59db58afa49bb5f88386fea8518792491ee3db8baab49c3ecda"
+  curl -o /tmp/repo 'https://gerrit.opencord.org/gitweb?p=repo.git;a=blob_plain;f=repo;hb=refs/heads/stable'
+  echo "$REPO_SHA256SUM  /tmp/repo" | sha256sum -c -
+  sudo mv /tmp/repo /usr/local/bin/repo
+  sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/repo
+fi
+
+if [ ! -d "$CORDDIR/build" ]
+then
+  # make sure we can find gerrit.opencord.org as DNS failures will fail the build
+  dig +short gerrit.opencord.org || (echo "ERROR: gerrit.opencord.org can't be looked up in DNS" && exit 1)
+
+  echo "Downloading CORD/XOS, branch:'${REPO_BRANCH}'..."
+
+  if [ ! -e "${HOME}/.gitconfig" ]
+  then
+    echo "No ${HOME}/.gitconfig, setting testing defaults"
+    git config --global user.name 'Test User'
+    git config --global user.email 'test@null.com'
+    git config --global color.ui false
+  fi
+
+  mkdir -p "${CORDDIR}" && cd "${CORDDIR}"
+  repo init -u https://gerrit.opencord.org/manifest -b "${REPO_BRANCH}"
+  repo sync
+
+  # download gerrit patches using repo
+  if [[ ! -z "${GERRIT_PATCHES[*]-}" ]]
+  then
+    for gerrit_patch in "${GERRIT_PATCHES[@]-}"
+    do
+      echo "Checking out gerrit changeset: '${gerrit_patch}'"
+      IFS=: read -r gerrit_project gerrit_changeset <<< "${gerrit_patch}"
+      repo download "${gerrit_project}" "${gerrit_changeset}"
+    done
+  fi
+fi