diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8b720626..06628693 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -25,3 +25,4 @@ testbin/*
 *~
 testdata/.remediators/
 .history/*
+.tools/
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 354942b2..fc7a3c8d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -540,3 +540,22 @@ container-push:  ## Push containers (NOTE: catalog can't be build before bundle
 
 .PHONY: build-and-run
 build-and-run: container-build-ocp container-push bundle-run
+
+# Shared dev environment
+# Uses a local sibling checkout if available (e.g. ../tools),
+# otherwise downloads the tools repo into .tools/ on first dev-* target use.
+TOOLS_DIR ?= $(shell cd .. && pwd)/tools
+DEV_MK := $(TOOLS_DIR)/dev/dev.mk
+ifeq ($(wildcard $(DEV_MK)),)
+  TOOLS_DIR := $(shell pwd)/.tools
+  DEV_MK := $(TOOLS_DIR)/dev/dev.mk
+endif
+-include $(DEV_MK)
+ifeq ($(wildcard $(DEV_MK)),)
+dev-%:
+	@echo "Downloading medik8s/tools into $(TOOLS_DIR)..."
+	@if [ -d $(TOOLS_DIR) ]; then echo "  Removing stale $(TOOLS_DIR)..."; rm -rf $(TOOLS_DIR); fi
+	@git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/medik8s/tools.git $(TOOLS_DIR)
+	@test -f $(DEV_MK) || { echo "Error: $(DEV_MK) not found after clone."; exit 1; }
+	@$(MAKE) $@
+endif