diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 01102e688..380bc03d0 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 bin/
 vendor/
 hack/code-gen
+hack/manifest-gen
 hack/controller-gen
 test/.git-credentials
 reports/
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 72c39eb75..896feef23 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ endif
 
 .PHONY: generate-clean
 generate-clean:
-	rm -rf hack/code-gen
+	rm -rf ./hack/code-gen
 
 # Build CLI but don't lint or run code generation first.
 cli-fast:
@@ -166,3 +166,26 @@ todo:
 		--text \
 		--color \
 		-nRo -E " *[^\.]TODO.*|SkipNow" .
+
+# requires manifests. generate-manifests should be run first
+# updating webhook requires ngrok to be running and updates the wh-config with the latest
+# ngrok configuration.  ngrok config changes for each restart which is why this is a separate target
+.PHONY: update-webhook-config
+update-webhook-config:
+	./hack/update-webhook-config.sh
+
+# generates manifests from the kudo cli (kudo init) and captures the manifests needed for
+# local development.  These are cached under the /hack/manifest-gen folder and are used to quickly
+# start running and debugging kudo controller and webhook locally.
+.PHONY: generate-manifests
+generate-manifests:
+	./hack/update-manifests.sh
+
+# requires manifests. generate-manifests should be run first
+# quickly sets a local dev env with the minimum necessary configurations to run
+# the kudo manager locally.  after running dev-ready, it is possible to 'make run' or run from an editor for debugging.
+# it currently does require ngrok.
+.PHONY: dev-ready
+dev-ready:
+	./hack/deploy-dev-prereqs.sh
+	./hack/update-webhook-config.sh
diff --git a/hack/deploy-dev-prereqs.sh b/hack/deploy-dev-prereqs.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..d298a99e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/deploy-dev-prereqs.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+if ! command -v kubectl &> /dev/null
+then
+    echo "required kubectl command NOT found"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# cache folder 
+MANCACHE=hack/manifest-gen
+
+if [ ! -d "$MANCACHE" ]
+then
+    echo "manifests do not exist."
+    echo "you must run 'make generate-manifests' or './hack/update-manifests.sh'"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+
+kubectl apply -f "$MANCACHE"/
+kubectl apply -f config/crds
+
+echo "Finished"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/hack/update-manifests.sh b/hack/update-manifests.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..98bd74218
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/update-manifests.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+if ! command -v yq &> /dev/null
+then
+    echo "required yq command NOT found"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+if ! command -v awk &> /dev/null
+then
+    echo "required awk command NOT found"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# cache folder 
+MANCACHE=hack/manifest-gen
+TEMP="$MANCACHE/temp"
+
+# hack/manifest-gen is the build folder
+mkdir -p "$MANCACHE"
+mkdir -p "$TEMP"
+
+#  gen manifests to hack/manifest-gen/manifests.yaml
+go run cmd/kubectl-kudo/main.go init  --dry-run --version dev --unsafe-self-signed-webhook-ca -o yaml > "$TEMP/manifests.yaml"
+
+cd "$TEMP" || exit
+
+# separate the manifests
+awk 'BEGIN{file = 0; filename = "output_" file ".txt"}
+    /---$/ {getline; file ++; filename = "output_" file ".txt"}
+    {print $0 > filename}' manifests.yaml
+cd - || exit
+
+#  loop through all the files
+for f in "$TEMP"/*.txt; 
+do 
+    KIND=$(yq r "$f" kind)
+
+case "$KIND" in 
+    "CustomResourceDefinition") 
+        NAME=$(yq r "$f" spec.names.kind)
+        echo "skip '$NAME' crd"
+        continue;;
+
+    "StatefulSet") 
+        echo "skipping statefulset"
+        continue;;
+    "Service")
+        echo "skipping service"
+        continue;;
+    "Secret")
+        echo "skipping secret"
+        continue;;
+    "Namespace")
+        KIND=ns;;    
+    "ServiceAccount")
+        KIND=sa;;
+    *)
+        KIND="";;        
+esac
+
+NAME=$(yq r "$f" metadata.name)
+
+if [ -n "$KIND" ]
+then
+    NAME="$NAME-$KIND"
+fi 
+NAME="$NAME.yaml"
+
+echo "Working with  $NAME"
+
+cp "$f" "$MANCACHE/$NAME"
+done
+
+# update webhook (add config.url and remove config.caBundle and config.service)
+yq w -i "$MANCACHE/kudo-manager-instance-admission-webhook-config.yaml" webhooks[0].clientConfig.url https://replace-url.com
+yq d -i "$MANCACHE/kudo-manager-instance-admission-webhook-config.yaml" webhooks[0].clientConfig.caBundle
+yq d -i "$MANCACHE/kudo-manager-instance-admission-webhook-config.yaml" webhooks[0].clientConfig.service
+
+rm -rf "$TEMP"
+echo "Finished"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/hack/update-webhook-config.sh b/hack/update-webhook-config.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..e889281af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/update-webhook-config.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+if ! command -v curl &> /dev/null
+then
+    echo "curl command NOT found"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+
+CODE=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" localhost:4040)
+
+
+case "$CODE" in 
+    "000") 
+        echo "ngrok server is not up."
+        exit 1;;
+
+    "302") echo "ngrok up and running" ;;
+esac
+
+if ! command -v yq &> /dev/null
+then
+    echo "yq command NOT found"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+#  need to update the webhook url to the current tunnel.  ngrok array order changes requiring a tunnel select for https and pull the public_url of that tunnel
+#  template webfile located at: config/admit-wh.yaml relative to the project root
+#  this script requires "update-manifests.sh" to run first
+yq  w hack/manifest-gen/kudo-manager-instance-admission-webhook-config.yaml webhooks[0].clientConfig.url "$(curl -s localhost:4040/api/tunnels | jq '.tunnels[] | select(.proto == "https") | .public_url' -r)/admit-kudo-dev-v1beta1-instance" | kubectl apply -f -
+
+# debug notes:  This kubectl apply will fail if a kudo init creates a webhook with a clientConfig.service.  By adding  a clientConfig.url it creates a service and url which is not valid
+RESULT=$?
+if [ "$RESULT" -ne 0 ]; then 
+    echo "updating the webhook config FAILED.  It is likely because the deploy configuration includes a service which is incompatible with a config url."
+    echo "you may need to 'kubectl delete MutatingWebhookConfiguration kudo-manager-instance-admission-webhook-config'"
+fi
\ No newline at end of file