diff --git a/setup.sh b/setup.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4faa03a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# a setup script to download and install kafka, zookeeper, and storm in your
+# home directory for development.
+ZOOKEEPER_RELEASE='3.4.6'
+KAFKA_RELEASE=0.8.1.1
+STORM_RELEASE='0.9.2'
+
+downloadToHome () {
+    ROOT_URL="http://apache.mirrors.tds.net/"
+    case $1 in
+    zookeeper)
+        URL="$1/$1-$ZOOKEEPER_RELEASE/$1-$ZOOKEEPER_RELEASE.tar.gz"
+        RELEASE=$ZOOKEEPER_RELEASE
+        EXT=.tar.gz
+        ;;
+    kafka)
+        URL="$1/$KAFKA_RELEASE/$1-$KAFKA_RELEASE-src.tgz"
+        RELEASE="$KAFKA_RELEASE"
+        EXT=.tgz
+        ;;
+    storm)
+        URL="incubator/$1/apache-$1-$STORM_RELEASE-incubating/apache-$1-$STORM_RELEASE-incubating-src.tar.gz"
+        RELEASE="$STORM_RELEASE"
+        EXT=".tar.gz"
+        ;;
+    *)
+        echo "not a valid library. choose {zookeeper/kafka/storm}"
+        #exit 1
+    esac
+    if [[ ! -z "$RELEASE" ]]; then
+        FOLDER=~/.$1-$RELEASE-src
+        if [[ ! -d "$FOLDER" ]]; then
+            curl -o "$1$EXT" $ROOT_URL$URL
+            mkdir $FOLDER
+            tar -xzf "$1$EXT" -C $FOLDER --strip-components=1
+            rm -rf $1$EXT
+        else
+            echo "$1 may already be downloaded. Remove $FOLDER before continuing."
+            #exit 1
+        fi
+    else
+        echo '$RELEASE does not exist. this should never happen. Check script.'
+        #exit 1
+    fi
+}
+echo "downloading kafka to ~/.kafka-\$RELEASE-src:"
+downloadToHome kafka
+echo "downloading zookeeper to ~/.zookeeper-\$RELEASE-src:"
+downloadToHome zookeeper
+echo "downloading storm to ~/.storm-\$RELEASE-src:"
+downloadToHome storm