diff --git a/.buckconfig b/.buckconfig
index 2a96c741e2..bcefa2a7dd 100644
--- a/.buckconfig
+++ b/.buckconfig
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 [alias]
   api = //:api
+  api_deploy = //:api_deploy
+  api_install = //:api_install
   download = //:download
   download_sources = //:download_sources
   gerrit = //:gerrit
diff --git a/BUCK b/BUCK
index ee5ba75430..98a85a1405 100644
--- a/BUCK
+++ b/BUCK
@@ -6,19 +6,24 @@ gerrit_war(name = 'firefox',  ui = 'ui_firefox')
 gerrit_war(name = 'withdocs', context = DOCS)
 gerrit_war(name = 'release',  context = DOCS + ['//plugins:core.zip'])
 
+API_DEPS = [
+  ':extension-api',
+  ':extension-api-src',
+  ':plugin-api',
+  ':plugin-api-src',
+]
+
 genrule(
   name = 'api',
   cmd = '',
   srcs = [],
-  deps = [
-    ':extension-api',
-    ':extension-api-src',
-    ':plugin-api',
-    ':plugin-api-src',
-  ],
+  deps = API_DEPS,
   out = '__fake.api__',
 )
 
+maven_install(deps = API_DEPS)
+maven_deploy(deps = API_DEPS)
+
 java_binary(name = 'extension-api', deps = [':extension-lib'])
 java_library(
   name = 'extension-lib',
diff --git a/Documentation/dev-buck.txt b/Documentation/dev-buck.txt
index 329459d10c..dbb9006853 100644
--- a/Documentation/dev-buck.txt
+++ b/Documentation/dev-buck.txt
@@ -126,6 +126,21 @@ The output JAR files will be placed in:
   buck-out/gen/{extension,plugin}-api.jar
 ----
 
+Install {extension,plugin}-api to the local maven repository:
+
+----
+  buck build api_install
+----
+
+Deploy {extension,plugin}-api to the remote maven repository
+
+----
+  buck build api_deploy
+----
+
+The type of the repo is induced from the Gerrit version name, i.e.
+* 2.8-SNAPSHOT: shapshot repo
+* 2.8: release repo
 
 Plugins
 ~~~~~~~
@@ -283,7 +298,9 @@ archetypes to support creating a new plugin, but existing plugins can
 develop against the API JAR(s) if they are installed into a Maven
 repository. tools/deploy_api.sh is how we did this for release
 versions of Gerrit. Something similar probably still be used with BUCK
-to publish the precompiled JARs.
+to publish the precompiled JARs. (Note: this is partially done with the
+target: `buck build api_install`; after issuing this command the new API
+version can be consumed by Maven driven custom plugins).
 +
 The third option is to support a BUCK based plugin build outside of
 the Gerrit tree. This is harder because there is functionality
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..359b6d9c77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+GERRIT_VER = '2.8-SNAPSHOT'
diff --git a/tools/BUCK b/tools/BUCK
index 5f371f1c2d..405d60da15 100644
--- a/tools/BUCK
+++ b/tools/BUCK
@@ -17,6 +17,13 @@ python_binary(
   visibility = ['PUBLIC'],
 )
 
+python_binary(
+  name = 'maven_deploy',
+  main = 'maven_deploy.py',
+  deps = [':util'],
+  visibility = ['PUBLIC'],
+)
+
 python_library(
   name = 'util',
   srcs = ['util.py'],
diff --git a/tools/build.defs b/tools/build.defs
index bbea5add63..3ff82d1fd6 100644
--- a/tools/build.defs
+++ b/tools/build.defs
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
+include_defs('//VERSION')
 
 DOCS = ['//Documentation:html.zip']
 LIBS = [
@@ -77,3 +78,33 @@ def gerrit_war(name, ui = 'ui_optdbg', context = []):
       '//gerrit-gwtui:' + ui + '.zip',
     ] + context,
   )
+
+def maven_deploy(
+    deps
+    ):
+  _maven_util('deploy', deps)
+
+def maven_install(
+    deps
+    ):
+  _maven_util(
+    name = 'install',
+    deps = deps)
+
+def _maven_util(
+    name,
+    deps
+    ):
+  cmd = [
+    '${//tools:maven_deploy}',
+    '-a', name,
+    '-v', GERRIT_VER,
+    '-d', '"$DEPS"'
+  ]
+  genrule(
+    name = 'api_%s' % name,
+    cmd = ' '.join(cmd),
+    srcs = [],
+    deps = deps + ['//tools:maven_deploy'],
+    out = '__fake.api_%s__' % name
+  )
diff --git a/tools/maven_deploy.py b/tools/maven_deploy.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4779abe577
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/maven_deploy.py
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+# Copyright (C) 2013 The Android Open Source Project
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+from __future__ import print_function
+from optparse import OptionParser
+from os.path import exists
+from sys import stderr
+from util import check_output
+
+opts = OptionParser()
+opts.add_option('-a', help='action (valid actions are: install,deploy)')
+opts.add_option('-v', help='gerrit version')
+opts.add_option('-d', help='dependencies (jars artifacts)')
+
+args, ctx = opts.parse_args()
+action = args.a
+if action not in ['deploy', 'install']:
+  print("unknown action : %s" % action, file=stderr)
+  exit(1)
+
+deps = args.d.split()
+if not deps:
+  print('dependencies are empty')
+  exit(1)
+
+extension_jar = [x for x in deps if "extension-api.jar" in x][0]
+extension_src = [x for x in deps if "extension-api-src.jar" in x][0]
+plugin_jar = [x for x in deps if "plugin-api.jar" in x][0]
+plugin_src = [x for x in deps if "plugin-api-src.jar" in x][0]
+
+version = args.v
+if not version:
+  print('version is empty')
+  exit(1)
+
+REPO_TYPE = 'snapshot' if version.endswith("SNAPSHOT") else 'release'
+URL = 's3://gerrit-api@commondatastorage.googleapis.com/%s' % REPO_TYPE
+
+plugin = ['-DartifactId=gerrit-plugin-api']
+extension = ['-DartifactId=gerrit-extension-api']
+common = [
+  '-DgroupId=com.google.gerrit',
+  '-Dversion=%s' % version,
+]
+jar = ['-Dpackaging=jar']
+src = ['-Dpackaging=java-source']
+
+cmd = {
+  'deploy': ['mvn',
+             'deploy:deploy-file',
+             '-DrepositoryId=gerrit-api-repository',
+             '-Durl=%s' % URL],
+  'install': ['mvn',
+              'install:install-file'],
+  }
+
+try:
+  check_output(cmd[action] +
+               plugin +
+               common +
+               jar +
+               ['-Dfile=%s' % plugin_jar])
+  check_output(cmd[action] +
+               plugin +
+               common +
+               src +
+               ['-Dfile=%s' % plugin_src])
+  check_output(cmd[action] +
+               extension +
+               common +
+               jar +
+               ['-Dfile=%s' % extension_jar])
+  check_output(cmd[action] +
+               extension +
+               common +
+               src +
+               ['-Dfile=%s' % extension_src])
+except Exception as e:
+  print('%s command failed: %s' % (action, e), file=stderr)
+  exit(1)