diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 3649138eed..8773d27fb8 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -10,5 +10,4 @@ test-coverage-html/
 screenshots
 .DS_Store
 
-/tests/wpa/test-mu-plugins/custom-ep-credentials.php
-wpa-elasticsearch.yml
\ No newline at end of file
+payload
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/bin/build-zip.sh b/bin/build-zip.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..1fe5aefd81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/build-zip.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+npm ci
+npm run build
+
+rm -r ./payload
+
+TMP_DIR="./payload/elasticpress"
+mkdir -p $TMP_DIR
+rsync -rc --exclude-from=".distignore" --exclude="payload" . "$TMP_DIR/" && cd $TMP_DIR/.. && zip -r "./elasticpress.zip" .
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 4613f0379f..fb0c178251 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -18,13 +18,13 @@
     "start": "composer install --ignore-platform-reqs && npm install && npm run build",
     "build": "10up-toolkit build",
     "watch": "10up-toolkit start",
-    "build-release": "npm install && composer install --no-dev -o && npm run build",
     "lint-release": "npm install && composer install && npm run lint",
     "lint-js": "10up-toolkit lint-js assets/js tests/cypress",
     "lint-php": "composer run lint",
     "format-js": "10up-toolkit format-js assets/js",
     "lint": "npm run lint-style && npm run lint-js && npm run lint-php",
     "build:docs": "rm -rf hook_docs && jsdoc -c hookdoc-conf.json elasticpress.php includes",
+    "build:zip": "./bin/build-zip.sh",
     "lint-style": "10up-toolkit lint-style",
     "env": "wp-env",
     "env:start": "wp-env start && cd bin/es-docker/ && docker-compose up -d",