diff --git a/bap_build.sh b/bap_build.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..c5536257
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bap_build.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#!/bin/bash -e
+
+# this script is woefully incomplete
+# because I already had tons of stuff on this VM
+# update before release
+
+sudo apt-get install ocaml-interp
+
+mkdir -p bap
+cd bap
+if [ ! -d bap-lifter ]; then
+  git clone https://github.com/BinaryAnalysisPlatform/bap-lifter.git
+fi
+
+cd bap-lifter
+./configure
+make -j $(grep processor < /proc/cpuinfo | wc -l)
+
+# installed at bap/bap-lifter/toil.native
+