diff --git a/Documentation/dev-bazel.txt b/Documentation/dev-bazel.txt
index bec1984992..ffd6f01d33 100644
--- a/Documentation/dev-bazel.txt
+++ b/Documentation/dev-bazel.txt
@@ -430,6 +430,19 @@ And corresponding WORKSPACE excerpt:
  )
 ----
 
+== Building against SNAPSHOT Maven JARs
+
+To build against SNAPSHOT Maven JARs, the complete SNAPSHOT version must be used:
+
+[source,python]
+----
+ maven_jar(
+   name = "pac4j-core",
+   artifact = "org.pac4j:pac4j-core:3.5.0-SNAPSHOT-20190112.120241-16",
+   sha1 = "da2b1cb68a8f87bfd40813179abd368de9f3a746",
+ )
+----
+
 [[consume-jgit-from-development-tree]]
 
 To consume the JGit dependency from the development tree, edit
diff --git a/tools/bzl/maven_jar.bzl b/tools/bzl/maven_jar.bzl
index 821e037687..7bc07b1cd9 100644
--- a/tools/bzl/maven_jar.bzl
+++ b/tools/bzl/maven_jar.bzl
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ MAVEN_LOCAL = "MAVEN_LOCAL:"
 
 ECLIPSE = "ECLIPSE:"
 
+MAVEN_SNAPSHOT = "https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots"
+
+SNAPSHOT = "-SNAPSHOT-"
+
 def _maven_release(ctx, parts):
     """induce jar and url name from maven coordinates."""
     if len(parts) not in [3, 4]:
@@ -20,9 +24,25 @@ def _maven_release(ctx, parts):
         group, artifact, version = parts
         file_version = version
 
+    repository = ctx.attr.repository
+
+    if "-SNAPSHOT-" in version:
+        start = version.index(SNAPSHOT)
+        end = start + len(SNAPSHOT) - 1
+
+        # file version without snapshot constant, but with post snapshot suffix
+        file_version = version[:start] + version[end:]
+
+        # version without post snapshot suffix
+        version = version[:end]
+
+        # overwrite the repository with Maven snapshot repository
+        repository = MAVEN_SNAPSHOT
+
     jar = artifact.lower() + "-" + file_version
+
     url = "/".join([
-        ctx.attr.repository,
+        repository,
         group.replace(".", "/"),
         artifact,
         version,