diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index 8527b7e0e..31721a18d 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
 .git
 bin/*
+!bin/mysql-operator_linux_amd64
+!bin/mysql-operator-sidecar_linux_amd64
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index f6bc1846c..86c2f9656 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ IMAGE_NAME := mysql-operator
 SIDECAR_IMAGE_NAME := mysql-operator-sidecar
 BUILD_TAG := build
 IMAGE_TAGS := $(APP_VERSION)
+PKG_NAME := github.com/presslabs/mysql-operator
 
 BINDIR := $(PWD)/bin
 KUBEBUILDER_VERSION ?= 1.0.7
@@ -33,6 +34,18 @@ build: generate fmt vet
 	go build -o bin/mysql-operator github.com/presslabs/mysql-operator/cmd/mysql-operator
 	go build -o bin/mysql-operator-sidecar github.com/presslabs/mysql-operator/cmd/mysql-operator-sidecar
 
+# skaffold build
+bin/mysql-operator_linux_amd64: $(shell hack/development/related-go-files.sh $(PKG_NAME) cmd/mysql-operator/main.go)
+	CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build -a -o bin/mysql-operator_linux_amd64 github.com/presslabs/mysql-operator/cmd/mysql-operator
+
+bin/mysql-operator-sidecar_linux_amd64: $(shell hack/development/related-go-files.sh $(PKG_NAME) cmd/mysql-operator-sidecar/main.go)
+	CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build -a -o bin/mysql-operator-sidecar_linux_amd64 github.com/presslabs/mysql-operator/cmd/mysql-operator-sidecar
+
+skaffold-build: bin/mysql-operator_linux_amd64 bin/mysql-operator-sidecar_linux_amd64
+
+skaffold-run: skaffold-build
+	skaffold run
+
 # Run against the configured Kubernetes cluster in ~/.kube/config
 run: generate fmt vet
 	go run ./cmd/mysql-operator/main.go
diff --git a/hack/development/Dockerfile.operator b/hack/development/Dockerfile.operator
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..83d242205
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/development/Dockerfile.operator
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+FROM scratch
+
+# set expiration time for dev images
+# https://support.coreos.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001384693-Tag-Expiration
+LABEL quay.expires-after=2d
+
+COPY ./bin/mysql-operator_linux_amd64 /mysql-operator
+ENTRYPOINT ["/mysql-operator"]
diff --git a/hack/development/Dockerfile.sidecar b/hack/development/Dockerfile.sidecar
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..db64a0f54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/development/Dockerfile.sidecar
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# Copy the mysql-operator-sidecar into it's own image
+FROM debian:stretch as sidecar
+
+RUN apt-get update \
+    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+        apt-transport-https ca-certificates wget \
+        gnupg1 dirmngr \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+RUN apt-key adv --keyserver ha.pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys 9334A25F8507EFA5
+
+RUN echo 'deb https://repo.percona.com/apt stretch main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/percona.list
+
+RUN apt-get update \
+    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+        percona-toolkit percona-xtrabackup-24 unzip \
+    && wget https://github.com/maxbube/mydumper/releases/download/v0.9.5/mydumper_0.9.5-2.stretch_amd64.deb \
+    && dpkg -i mydumper_0.9.5-2.stretch_amd64.deb \
+    && rm -rf mydumper_0.9.5-2.stretch_amd64.deb /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
+    && wget https://downloads.rclone.org/rclone-current-linux-amd64.zip \
+    && unzip rclone-current-linux-amd64.zip \
+    && mv rclone-*-linux-amd64/rclone /usr/local/bin/ \
+    && rm -rf rclone-*-linux-amd64 rclone-current-linux-amd64.zip \
+    && chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/rclone
+
+# set expiration time for dev images
+# https://support.coreos.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001384693-Tag-Expiration
+LABEL quay.expires-after=2d
+
+COPY ./hack/docker/sidecar-entrypoint.sh /usr/local/bin/sidecar-entrypoint.sh
+COPY ./bin/mysql-operator-sidecar_linux_amd64 /usr/local/bin/mysql-operator-sidecar
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/sidecar-entrypoint.sh"]
diff --git a/hack/development/dev-values.yaml b/hack/development/dev-values.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..11422f1f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/development/dev-values.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+extraArgs:
+  - --debug
+
+installCRDs: false
+
+orchestrator:
+  topologyPassword: password1
+  antiAffinity: soft
+  replicas: 1
diff --git a/hack/development/related-go-files.sh b/hack/development/related-go-files.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..44622e32d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/development/related-go-files.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# This command outputs a list of go files on which the given go file depends on
+# Example: related-go-files.sh <base package name> <go file>
+
+set -e
+
+go list -f '{{ join .Deps "\n" }}' $2 | grep 'pkg' | grep -v 'vendor' | sed -e "s|^$1/||" | xargs -I % find % -name "*.go" -maxdepth 1 -type f 2>/dev/null
diff --git a/skaffold.yaml b/skaffold.yaml
index 77f899fc4..71e9a4ca6 100644
--- a/skaffold.yaml
+++ b/skaffold.yaml
@@ -3,9 +3,11 @@ kind: Config
 build:
   artifacts:
   - image: quay.io/presslabs/mysql-operator
+    docker:
+      dockerfile: hack/development/Dockerfile.operator
   - image: quay.io/presslabs/mysql-operator-sidecar
     docker:
-      dockerfile: Dockerfile.sidecar
+      dockerfile: hack/development/Dockerfile.sidecar
   local:
     push: true
 deploy:
@@ -14,7 +16,7 @@ deploy:
     - name: test
       chartPath: hack/charts/mysql-operator
       valuesFiles:
-      - hack/dev-values.yaml
+      - hack/development/dev-values.yaml
       values:
         image: quay.io/presslabs/mysql-operator
         sidecarImage: quay.io/presslabs/mysql-operator-sidecar