diff --git a/repo-tests/import-repositories.sh b/repo-tests/import-repositories.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..eedf858ffe8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/repo-tests/import-repositories.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+set -x
+
+# commits relevant files from the selected repositories and stores the used commit sha in $repo.txt
+repos="codeql-ruby codeql codeql-go"
+for repo in $repos; do
+    echo "importing $repo"
+    rm -rf "$repo";
+    git clone --depth 1 git@github.com:github/"$repo".git;
+    git -C "$repo" rev-parse HEAD > "$repo.txt";
+    # remove upgrades and tests (heuristic)
+    find "$repo" -depth -type d \( -path "*/upgrades" -o -path "*/ql/test" \) -exec rm -rf {} \; ;
+    # only preserve files mentioned in tools/autobuild.sh
+    find "$repo" -type f -not \( -name "*.qll" -o -name "*.ql" -o -name "*.dbscheme" -o -name qlpack.yml \) -exec rm -f {} \; ;
+    # remove empty directories (git does not care though)
+    find "$repo" -type d -empty -delete;
+    git add "$repo" "$repo.txt";
+    git commit -m "Add $repo sources ($(tr -d '\n' < $repo.txt))";
+    echo "done"
+done