diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 53d8c26eca0..4449fe42e41 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
+    <groupId>org.elasticsearch.plugin</groupId>
     <artifactId>x-plugins</artifactId>
     <version>2.1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
     <packaging>pom</packaging>
diff --git a/x-dev-tools/RELEASE.md b/x-dev-tools/RELEASE.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8e2dcbf69d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/x-dev-tools/RELEASE.md
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+# Releasing x-plugins
+
+Releasing is split into two steps now. First, elasticsearch core gets a testing release.
+This release is not published on the maven sonatype repo, but is left as a staging repository.
+At the same time, the created artifacts are uploaded to the download.elastic.co S3 bucket into
+a private URL, that is comprised of the version and the commit hash.
+
+As soon as the core is uploaded there, we can use this repository to build x-plugins against it.
+
+## Release x-plugins for a release candidate
+
+In order to upload x-plugins to the elasticsearch core release candidate, you need to execute the
+`release_beta_to_s3` shell script. There are two parameters, first the version to be released and
+second the commit hash, which is part of the URL to download this beta release.
+
+```
+sh x-dev-tools/release_beta_to_s3.sh 2.0.0-beta1 468cb61
+```
+
+So, what is this script doing
+
+* Adds the S3 bucket as repository
+* Updates the versions in the pom.xml to reflect the non-snapshot version
+* runs `mvn install` into a local repository, then removes sources and emits the s3cmd command to sync with the core repo
+
+As soon as the Elasticsearch is released, this S3 bucket is just renamed. This
+means, that at this moment, the x-plugins will work for the plugin manager, 
+without you having to do anthing!
+
+However, one last step remains...
+
+## Deploying x-plugins into maven repositories
+
+For those, who want to use the jar files as part of their java projects, we have
+to update our own artifactory after the release has been done.
+
+In addition to those steps like updating documentation we have to run deploy
+to this repo. What is required for this, is the version of the release and
+the commit hash of the commit in the `x-plugins` repo. 
+
+**NOTE: This is not the same commit hash as above** in the release candidate
+process. Luckily the script should fail, when git does not find the commit!
+
+```
+sh release_to_repositories.sh 2.0.0-beta1 75964ad
+```
+
+This script checks out the specified commit hash, removes all the
+`-SNAPSHOT` suffixes and runs `mvn deploy -Pdeploy-public`. The script
+will also wait for you pressing enter before proceeding!
+