diff --git a/.gitigmore b/.gitigmore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..42864aef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitigmore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.dependencies
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index e2f2ed47..efb5fa1e 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ This doc is intended for contributors to `cadence-java-client` (hopefully that's
 ## Development Environment
 
 * Java 11 (currently, we use Java 11 to compile Java 8 code).
-* Thrift 0.9.3 (use [homebrew](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/thrift@0.9) or [distribution](https://downloads.apache.org/thrift/0.9.3/))
+* Thrift 0.9.3 (use [homebrew](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/thrift@0.9) or [distribution](https://downloads.apache.org/thrift/0.9.3/)). Alternatively you can install with `scripts/install-thrift-locally-osx.sh`.
 * Gradle build tool [6.x](https://github.com/uber/cadence-java-client/blob/master/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties)
 * Docker
 
diff --git a/scripts/install-thrift-locally-osx.sh b/scripts/install-thrift-locally-osx.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..3b89a262
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/install-thrift-locally-osx.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+#!/bin/bash -e
+
+cd $(dirname $0)/..
+
+if [[ ! -d .dependencies ]]; then
+	mkdir .dependencies
+fi
+
+cd .dependencies
+rm -rf thrift
+mkdir thrift
+cd thrift
+
+APACHE_THRIFT_VERSION=0.9.3
+
+brew install bison
+
+# macs have an old versiion of bison hanging around typically
+# so override it by using the brew version in PATH
+export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/bison/bin:$PATH"
+
+wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/thrift/${APACHE_THRIFT_VERSION}/thrift-${APACHE_THRIFT_VERSION}.tar.gz && \
+
+tar -xvf thrift-${APACHE_THRIFT_VERSION}.tar.gz
+rm thrift-${APACHE_THRIFT_VERSION}.tar.gz
+cd thrift-${APACHE_THRIFT_VERSION}/
+
+./configure --enable-libs=no --enable-tests=no --enable-tutorial=no --with-cpp=no --with-c_glib=no --with-java=yes --with-ruby=no --with-erlang=no --with-go=no --with-nodejs=no --with-python=no && \
+
+make
+echo ""
+echo "thrift expects to be globally installed :/"
+echo "asking do do with sudo to install to /usr/local/bin"
+echo ""
+sudo make install && \
+cd .. && \
+rm -rf thrift-${APACHE_THRIFT_VERSION}
+thrift --version
+echo "done"