diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..04796d08e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+FROM debian:jessie
+MAINTAINER Joshua Warner, joshuawarner32@gmail.com
+
+# Install base dependencies and build tools, general debugging tools
+RUN apt-get update && \
+    apt-get install -y \
+        build-essential \
+        g++-4.8 \
+        zlib1g-dev \
+        openjdk-7-jdk \
+        locales \
+        --no-install-recommends && \
+    apt-get clean all
+
+# Fix utf-8 default locale - we'd otherwise have trouble with the Strings and Misc tests
+RUN dpkg-reconfigure locales && \
+    locale-gen C.UTF-8 && \
+    /usr/sbin/update-locale LANG=C.UTF-8
+
+ENV LC_ALL C.UTF-8
+
+# Set JAVA_HOME for avian's benefit
+ENV JAVA_HOME /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64
+
+# Avian build location
+VOLUME /var/avian
+WORKDIR /var/avian
diff --git a/docker-build.sh b/docker-build.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..4229d31fd1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-build.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+if test $# -eq 0; then
+    echo "Usage: $0 <command_to_run_in_docker>"
+    echo "Ex: $0 make test"
+    echo "Ex: $0 ./test/ci.sh"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+docker run --rm -i -t -v $(cd $(dirname "$0") && pwd):/var/avian -u $(id -u "${USER}") joshuawarner32/avian-build "${@}"