diff --git a/toolkit/README.md b/toolkit/README.md
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/toolkit/README.md
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+# PiGx Developer Toolkit
+
+This is script is supposed to be a helper that aggregates commonly used commands.
+
+You may run this script from the base directory of your current pigx-pipeline git/source directory, 
+as it relies on the configure and make files beeing in the same directory.  
+
+```
+Usage: ./pigx-dev.sh [ subcommand ] [-v]
+
+Available subcommands are:
+    b|build     Initialise pipeline from git folder, running bootstrap and configure
+    c|clean     Remove test files
+    t|test      Run tests
+
+    -v|--version   Show toolkit version
+    -h|--help      Show this help
+```
+
+
diff --git a/toolkit/pigx-dev.sh b/toolkit/pigx-dev.sh
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+++ b/toolkit/pigx-dev.sh
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+#!/bin/bash
+# -*- bash -*-
+# PiGx Developer Toolkit.
+#
+# Copyright © 2021 Alexander Blume <alexander.blume@mdc-berlin.de>
+#
+# This file is provided to help the developers of the PiGx Pipelines.  #
+# Change History
+# 08/06/2021 Alexander Blume    Update help message.
+#                               Add release and sign.
+#
+#
+#
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+
+
+VERSION="0.0.3"
+DESCRIPTION="PiGx developer toolkit"
+
+usage() {
+   # display help message
+  echo "Usage: $0 [ subcommand ] [-v]"
+  echo
+  echo "Available subcommands are:"
+  echo "    b|build     Initialise pipeline from git folder, running bootstrap and configure"
+  echo "    c|clean     Remove test files"
+  echo "    t|test      Run tests"
+  echo "    r|release   Create release"
+  echo "    s|sign      Sign tag and release"
+  echo 
+  echo "    -v|--version   Show toolkit version"
+  echo "    -h|--help      Show this help"
+}
+
+build() {
+	## initialisation to run pipeline both from git folder and
+	## from any folder with absolute path as [git-folder]/local_install/pigx-bsseq ...
+  	./bootstrap.sh
+	./configure --prefix=$PWD/local_install
+	make install
+}
+
+clean() {
+	# remove test files
+	make clean
+}
+
+test() {
+    # run all tests
+    make check
+}
+
+release() {
+    # bundle release
+    make distcheck
+}
+
+sign() {
+    # sign the release
+    git tag --sign v$(cat VERSION)
+    gpg --detach-sign pigx_*-$(cat VERSION).tar.gz
+}
+
+default() {
+  local OPTIND
+  while getopts ":v" opt; do
+    case "${opt}" in
+      v)
+        echo -e "${DESCRIPTION}, Version v${VERSION}"
+        exit 1
+        ;;
+    esac
+  done
+  shift $((OPTIND-1))
+  usage
+}
+
+
+case "$1" in
+  b|build)
+    build
+    ;;
+  c|clean)
+    clean
+    ;;
+  t|test)
+    test
+    ;;
+  r|release)
+    release
+    ;;
+  s|sign)
+    sign
+    ;;
+  *)
+    default "$@"
+    exit 1
+    ;;
+esac
+
+