diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ba8d7b0..6a79c3e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 *.img
 *.model
 *.manifest
+node_modules
+package-lock.json
+snaps
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 52b644f..99f0cea 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
 CHANNEL=stable
+ENV=dev
 
 clean:
 	rm -rf *.img *.model *.manifest
 
 %.model: boards/%.yaml # sign a model file
 	cat definition.yaml $< | python -c "import sys, yaml, json; json.dump(yaml.load(sys.stdin), sys.stdout, indent=2)" | sed "s|TIMESTAMP|$(shell date -Iseconds --utc)|g" | snap sign -k default > $@
-%.img: %.model # build an image
+snaps/%:
+	node build-tool.js --env $(ENV) --channel $(CHANNEL) --board $*
+%.img: %.model snaps/% # build an image
 	sudo ubuntu-image snap -o $@ -c $(CHANNEL) $<
 
 # VM stuff
@@ -16,4 +19,3 @@ start: vm.img # launch the image with kvm
 	kvm -smp 2 -m 1500 -netdev user,id=mynet0,hostfwd=tcp::8022-:22,hostfwd=tcp::8090-:80 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=mynet0 -drive file=vm.img,format=raw
 ssh: # ssh into it (don't check the key because that one changes after every rebuild)
 	ssh mkg20001@localhost -p 8022 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o GlobalKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
-
diff --git a/boards/opi0.yaml b/boards/opi0.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..510d1b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/boards/opi0.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+architecture: armhf
+gadget: orangepi-zero-gadget
+kernel: orangepi-zero-kernel
diff --git a/build-tool.js b/build-tool.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..018be25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build-tool.js
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+/* eslint-disable no-console */
+
+'use strict'
+
+const {board, env} = require('yargs').argv
+require('colors')
+const fs = require('fs')
+const path = require('path')
+const read = (...file) => String(fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, ...file)))
+const yaml = require('js-yaml')
+const cp = require('child_process')
+const JSON5 = require('json5')
+const mkdir = require('mkdirp').sync
+
+const isDev = env === 'dev'
+const forceBuild = isDev
+
+const deps = yaml.safeLoad(read('deps/' + board + '.yaml'))
+const boardDef = yaml.safeLoad(read('boards/' + board + '.yaml'))
+
+const exec = (cmd, dir, ...args) => new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+  console.log('$ %s'.bold, [cmd, ...args].map(JSON5.stringify).join(' '))
+  const p = cp.spawn(cmd, args, {stdio: 'inherit', cwd: dir})
+  p.once('close', (code, sig) => {
+    if (code || sig) {
+      return reject(new Error('Failed with code/sig: ' + (code || sig)))
+    }
+
+    resolve()
+  })
+})
+
+const execWithOutput = (cmd, ...args) => {
+  const p = cp.spawnSync(cmd, args)
+  if (p.status || p.signal) {
+    throw new Error('Failed with code/sig: ' + (p.status || p.signal))
+  }
+
+  return p
+}
+
+async function snapcraft (folder, outFile, targetArch) {
+  await exec('snapcraft', folder, 'snap', '-o', outFile, '--target-arch=' + targetArch)
+}
+
+async function pullOrClone (repo, dest, checkout) {
+  let currentCommit = ''
+  if (fs.existsSync(dest)) {
+    await exec('git', dest, 'remote', 'update', '--recurse-submodules=yes', '-p')
+  } else {
+    await exec('git', process.cwd(), 'clone', '--recursive', repo, dest)
+    currentCommit = String(execWithOutput('git', '-C', dest, 'rev-parse', '--verify', 'HEAD').stdout)
+  }
+  await exec('git', dest, 'checkout', checkout)
+  let newCommit = String(execWithOutput('git', '-C', dest, 'rev-parse', '--verify', 'HEAD').stdout)
+
+  return currentCommit !== newCommit // returns bool if snap need recompilation
+}
+
+async function main () {
+  for (const snapName in deps.snaps) { // eslint-disable-line guard-for-in
+    const snap = deps.snaps[snapName]
+    if (snap.mustBuild || forceBuild) {
+      console.log('Building %s...', snapName)
+
+      let buildFolder = path.join('snaps', board, snapName)
+      mkdir(buildFolder)
+
+      let sourceFolder = path.join(buildFolder, 'source')
+      let snapFile = path.join(buildFolder, snapName + '.snap')
+      if (await pullOrClone(snap.git, path.join(buildFolder, 'source'), snap.version)) {
+        if (fs.existsSync(snapFile)) {
+          fs.unlinkSync(snapFile)
+        }
+      }
+
+      if (!fs.existsSync(snapFile)) {
+        await snapcraft(sourceFolder, snapFile, boardDef.architecture)
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+main()
diff --git a/definition.yaml b/definition.yaml
index c0da4c2..57f0881 100644
--- a/definition.yaml
+++ b/definition.yaml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # basic
 type: model
 series: "16"
-model: hub
+model: ppl-hub
 # snaps to be preinstalled:
 required-snaps:
  - nextcloud # just for proof-of-concept
diff --git a/deps/opi0.yaml b/deps/opi0.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..74b3bd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deps/opi0.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+snaps:
+  orangepi-zero-gadget:
+    git: https://github.com/fuzeman/orangepi-zero-gadget
+    version: 1.0.0-beta.3
+    mustBuild: true # snap is only available in orange pi store
+  orangepi-zero-kernel:
+    git: https://github.com/fuzeman/orangepi-zero-kernel
+    version: 4.10.0-2001.2-beta.2
+    mustBuild: true # snap is only available in orange pi store
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f69f367
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+{
+  "name": "ppl-os",
+  "version": "0.0.1",
+  "description": "Files required to build the ubuntu core based pplOS",
+  "main": "build-tool.js",
+  "scripts": {
+    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
+  },
+  "repository": {
+    "type": "git",
+    "url": "ssh://gitea@git.coolaj86.com:22042/mkg20001/ppl-os.git"
+  },
+  "keywords": [
+    "pplOS",
+    "pplfamily",
+    "ubuntu-core",
+    "build-tool"
+  ],
+  "author": "Maciej Krüger <mkg20001@gmail.com>",
+  "license": "MIT",
+  "dependencies": {
+    "colors": "^1.3.1",
+    "js-yaml": "^3.12.0",
+    "json5": "^1.0.1",
+    "mkdirp": "^0.5.1",
+    "yargs": "^12.0.1"
+  }
+}