diff --git a/run.js b/run.js
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..927ed5a67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/run.js
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+/**
+ * a temporary utility to run local codemods quickly
+ * before we improve stuff upstream.
+ */
+
+const helpMsg = `
+run.js parser=flow codemodsToRun fileOrDirectoryToModify extensions="js,jsx,ts,tsx"
+
+codemodsToRun - paths to codemods which have a codeshift.config.js file.
+                separated by spaces.
+                can also just provide keys from the "shorthands.json" file
+
+examples:
+
+./run.js flow ./community/@pipedrive__convention-ui-react/src/5.0.0/transform.ts ~/projects/some-project-which-uses-cui4/src/
+./run.js flow cui5                                                               ~/projects/some-project-which-uses-cui4/src/ # cui5 is from shorthands.json
+
+`;
+
+const path = require('path');
+const cp = require('child_process');
+
+const peekNextArg = () => process.argv[0];
+const eatNextArg = () => process.argv.shift();
+
+const shouldPrintHelp = () => (
+  (should =
+    !process.argv.length ||
+    ['-h', '--help', '-help', 'help'].includes(peekNextArg())),
+  should && console.log(helpMsg),
+  should
+);
+
+const parseArgv = () => (
+  process.argv.splice(0, 2),
+  shouldPrintHelp() && process.exit(1),
+  {
+    parser: eatNextArg() || 'flow',
+    transformsToRun: parseArrayFromCsv(eatNextArg() || ''),
+    fileOrDirectoryToModify: eatNextArg() || '',
+    extensions: eatNextArg() || 'js,jsx,ts,tsx',
+  }
+);
+
+/**
+ * will pipe stdio as if we were running the command ourselves!
+ *
+ * see https://stackoverflow.com/a/47338488/9285308
+ *
+ * usage:
+ *
+ * ```js
+ * const command = "ls -la";
+ * require("child_process").execSync(command, { ...pipeStdioOpts() });
+ * ```
+ *
+ */
+const pipeStdioOpts = (cwd = process.cwd()) => ({ cwd, stdio: 'inherit' });
+
+run();
+
+function run() {
+  let {
+    parser, //
+    transformsToRun,
+    fileOrDirectoryToModify,
+    extensions,
+  } = parseArgv();
+
+  const shorthands = require(path.join(__dirname, './shorthands.json'));
+  console.log({ shorthands });
+
+  transformsToRun = transformsToRun
+    .map(t => {
+      if (t in shorthands) {
+        return resolveTransformsFromShorthand(shorthands[t]);
+      } else {
+        const dir = path.dirname(t);
+        const cmd = `yarn --cwd ${dir} build`;
+        console.log('transform to run, build cmd', { cmd });
+        cp.execSync(cmd, { ...pipeStdioOpts() });
+        return t;
+      }
+    })
+    .flat()
+    .join(',');
+
+  const cliPath = path.join(__dirname, './packages/cli/bin/codeshift-cli.js');
+
+  const cmdToExec = `${cliPath} --parser ${parser} -e ${extensions} -t ${transformsToRun} ${fileOrDirectoryToModify}`;
+  console.log({ cmdToExec });
+
+  cp.execSync(cmdToExec, { ...pipeStdioOpts() });
+}
+
+function parseArrayFromCsv(csv = '') {
+  return csv
+    .split(',')
+    .filter(c => !!c)
+    .map(c => c.trim())
+    .filter(c => !!c);
+}
+
+function resolveTransformsFromShorthand([pathToCodemodPkg, transformVersion]) {
+  cp.execSync(`yarn --cwd ${pathToCodemodPkg} build`, { ...pipeStdioOpts() });
+  console.log('built');
+
+  const pathToCodemodConfig = path.join(
+    pathToCodemodPkg,
+    'dist',
+    'codeshift.config.js',
+  );
+  console.log({ pathToCodemodConfig });
+
+  const codemodCfg = require(path.join(__dirname, pathToCodemodConfig));
+
+  const { transforms } = codemodCfg;
+
+  const transformsApplicable = Object.entries(transforms)
+    .map(([version, relPathToTransform]) => {
+      if (version === transformVersion) {
+        return relPathToTransform;
+        // return path.join(pathToCodemodPkg, 'dist', relPathToTransform); // TODO must ensure it's compiled / run with ts-node / require from 'dist'
+      }
+    })
+    .filter(x => !!x);
+
+  return transformsApplicable;
+}
diff --git a/shorthands.json b/shorthands.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fffb4a391
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shorthands.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+  "cui5": ["./community/@pipedrive__convention-ui-react", "5.0.0"]
+}