diff --git a/tools/make-dev-archive.sh b/tools/make-dev-archive.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..ec3f7ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/make-dev-archive.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# create archive from current source using git
+
+VERSION=$(git describe --tags --always)
+# skip "v" from start of version number (if it exists) and replace - with .
+VERSION=${VERSION#v}
+VERSION=${VERSION//[-]/.}
+
+NAMEVER=libyang-$VERSION
+ARCHIVE=$NAMEVER.tar.gz
+
+git archive --format tgz --output $ARCHIVE --prefix $NAMEVER/ HEAD
+
+# apkg expects stdout to list archive files
+echo $ARCHIVE