diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 024e3f4a9b..37b6468d83 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ WEB-INF
 
 /.vscode
 /.idea
+/dev-dependencies/
 loader/env.json
 .idea/
 buildVersionNumber.txt
diff --git a/dev-dependencies/.gitkeep b/dev-dependencies/.gitkeep
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3267dba68c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev-dependencies/.gitkeep
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+### Maven dependencies can be downloaded by running the goal dependency:copy-dependencies
+##  e.g. by running the following command from the Project root directory:
+#   mvn -f loader/pom.xml dependency:copy-dependencies -DoutputDirectory=../dev-dependencies