diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yaml b/.github/workflows/build.yaml
index 6c0f7555..c91c0260 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yaml
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ jobs:
           echo "GOCACHE=$gopath/gocache" >> $GITHUB_ENV
           echo "PATH=$gopath/bin:$PATH" >> $GITHUB_ENV
           echo "SLOW_TEST=${{inputs.slow-test}}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+          echo "STACKER_DOCKER_BASE=oci:$PWD/.build/oci-clone:" >> $GITHUB_ENV
 
           echo "PWD=$PWD"
           cat "$GITHUB_ENV"
@@ -69,6 +70,9 @@ jobs:
           GO111MODULE=off go get github.com/opencontainers/umoci/cmd/umoci
           make download-tools
           echo "running kernel is: $(uname -a)"
+      - name: docker-clone
+        run: |
+          make docker-clone "STACKER_DOCKER_BASE=docker://" CLONE_D="$PWD/.build/oci-clone"
       - name: Go-download
         run: |
           make go-download
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index dd9b2654..276254af 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ export GOCACHE = $(GOPATH)/gocache
 GO_SRC=$(shell find pkg cmd -name \*.go)
 VERSION?=$(shell git describe --tags || git rev-parse HEAD)
 VERSION_FULL?=$(if $(shell git status --porcelain --untracked-files=no),$(VERSION)-dirty,$(VERSION))
+HASH = \#
 
 LXC_VERSION?=$(shell pkg-config --modversion lxc)
 
@@ -21,6 +22,7 @@ STACKER_DOCKER_BASE?=docker://
 STACKER_BUILD_BASE_IMAGE?=$(STACKER_DOCKER_BASE)alpine:edge
 STACKER_BUILD_CENTOS_IMAGE?=$(STACKER_DOCKER_BASE)centos:latest
 STACKER_BUILD_UBUNTU_IMAGE?=$(STACKER_DOCKER_BASE)ubuntu:latest
+STACKER_BUILD_IMAGES = $(STACKER_BUILD_BASE_IMAGE) $(STACKER_BUILD_CENTOS_IMAGE) $(STACKER_BUILD_UBUNTU_IMAGE)
 LXC_CLONE_URL?=https://github.com/lxc/lxc
 LXC_BRANCH?=stable-5.0
 
@@ -116,7 +118,19 @@ test: stacker $(REGCLIENT) $(ZOT)
 		$(shell [ -z $(PRIVILEGE_LEVEL) ] || echo --privilege-level=$(PRIVILEGE_LEVEL)) \
 		$(patsubst %,test/%.bats,$(TEST))
 
-.PHONY:
+
+CLONE_D = $(BUILD_D)/oci-clone
+CLONE_RETRIES = 3
+.PHONY: docker-clone
+docker-clone:
+	mkdir -p $(CLONE_D)
+	vr() { echo "$$" "$$@" 1>&2; "$$@"; }; \
+	for u in $(STACKER_BUILD_IMAGES); do \
+		name=$${u$(HASH)$(HASH)*/}; \
+		vr skopeo copy --retry-times $(CLONE_RETRIES) "$$u" "oci:$(CLONE_D):$${name}"; \
+	done
+
+.PHONY: show-info
 show-info:
 	@echo BUILD_D=$(BUILD_D)
 	@go env
diff --git a/doc/hacking.md b/doc/hacking.md
index 3dfc5331..ba9a0127 100644
--- a/doc/hacking.md
+++ b/doc/hacking.md
@@ -19,13 +19,11 @@ The Makefile supports setting some variables for quicker development.
    or just to speed up iterative development, you can copy these images to a local
    oci repository or local zot repository and point the Make system at that.
 
-       $ OCI_D=/tmp/my.oci
-       $ for d in alpine:edge centos:latest ubuntu:latest; do
-           skopeo copy docker://$d oci:$OCI_D:$d; done
+       $ make docker-clone STACKER_DOCKER_BASE=docker:// CLONE_D=/tmp/my-oci
 
    And then invoke make like:
 
-       make STACKER_DOCKER_BASE="oci:$OCI_D:"
+       make STACKER_DOCKER_BASE="oci:/tmp/my-oci:"
 
    I have a nightly sync job that copies these to a local zot repo and then I can build with: