diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4925e28ff2ee9b353c46379f23b5aa54c9d7977a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+
+build:
+	cargo build
+
+lint:
+	cargo fmt --check
+	cargo clippy -- -D warnings
+
+docs:
+	cargo doc --open --lib --no-deps
+
+cli-docs:
+	cargo doc --open --bin=cli --no-deps
+
+dummy-data:
+	cd cli && \
+	cargo run -- solr-ingest --data-dir ../.docker/data
+
+# sadly necessary to get this compiling for Linux on Mac thanks to openssl
+# TODO: figure out if a local install of openssl on Mac can make this work
+docker-build:
+	docker run \
+	-v $(PWD):/workspace \
+	-w /workspace \
+	rust:latest \
+	cargo build --release