diff --git a/scripts/checkout-PR.sh b/scripts/checkout-PR.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..a35479331a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/checkout-PR.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you 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.
+
+# Setting the script to fail if anything goes wrong
+set -e
+
+# this script is a helper that will checkout the PR Branch
+
+ARTEMIS_USER_REMOTE_NAME=${ARTEMIS_USER_REMOTE_NAME:-origin}
+ARTEMIS_APACHE_REMOTE_NAME=${ARTEMIS_APACHE_REMOTE_NAME:-apache}
+ARTEMIS_GITHUB_REMOTE_NAME=${ARTEMIS_GITHUB_REMOTE_NAME:-upstream}
+
+git fetch $ARTEMIS_USER_REMOTE_NAME
+git fetch $ARTEMIS_APACHE_REMOTE_NAME
+git fetch $ARTEMIS_GITHUB_REMOTE_NAME
+
+git checkout $ARTEMIS_GITHUB_REMOTE_NAME/pr/$1 -B $1
+
+echo "\ndo your own rebase by typing: git pull --rebase $ARTEMIS_APACHE_REMOTE_NAME master"
diff --git a/scripts/merge-branch.sh b/scripts/merge-branch.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..1901623310
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/merge-branch.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+# Setting the script to fail if anything goes wrong
+set -e
+
+# This is a helpr script to help merging branches checked out
+# with checkout-PR.sh
+
+ARTEMIS_USER_REMOTE_NAME=${ARTEMIS_USER_REMOTE_NAME:-origin}
+ARTEMIS_APACHE_REMOTE_NAME=${ARTEMIS_APACHE_REMOTE_NAME:-apache}
+ARTEMIS_GITHUB_REMOTE_NAME=${ARTEMIS_GITHUB_REMOTE_NAME:-upstream}
+
+git fetch $ARTEMIS_USER_REMOTE_NAME
+git fetch $ARTEMIS_APACHE_REMOTE_NAME
+git fetch $ARTEMIS_GITHUB_REMOTE_NAME
+
+
+git checkout $1
+
+git pull --rebase $ARTEMIS_APACHE_REMOTE_NAME master
+git checkout $ARTEMIS_APACHE_REMOTE_NAME/master -B master
+
+git merge --no-ff $1 -m "This closes #$*"
+git branch -D $1