diff --git a/devenv/local-npm/conf/nginx/Dockerfile b/devenv/local-npm/conf/nginx/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..acdaf67bffa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/devenv/local-npm/conf/nginx/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+FROM tutum/nginx
+RUN rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
+ADD sites-enabled /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
diff --git a/devenv/local-npm/conf/nginx/sites-enabled/verdaccio-conf b/devenv/local-npm/conf/nginx/sites-enabled/verdaccio-conf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7bedc408727
--- /dev/null
+++ b/devenv/local-npm/conf/nginx/sites-enabled/verdaccio-conf
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+server {
+  listen 80 default_server;
+	access_log /var/log/nginx/verdaccio.log;
+	charset utf-8;
+  location / {
+    proxy_pass              http://grafana-npm.local:4873/;
+    proxy_set_header        Host $host;
+    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
+    proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
+    proxy_ssl_session_reuse off;
+    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
+    proxy_redirect off;
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/devenv/local-npm/docker-compose.yaml b/devenv/local-npm/docker-compose.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..66758eadd91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/devenv/local-npm/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+version: '2'
+
+services:
+  verdaccio:
+    image: verdaccio/verdaccio:4
+    container_name: verdaccio_root_path
+    ports:
+      - "4873:4873"
+    volumes:
+      - verdaccio:/verdaccio
+
+  nginx:
+    restart: always
+    build: conf/nginx
+    ports:
+      - "80:80"
+    volumes:
+      - /www/public
+    volumes_from:
+      - verdaccio
+    links:
+      - verdaccio:verdaccio
+
+volumes:
+  verdaccio:
+    driver: local
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index fcb4b85eb7e..f4a6358f63c 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
     "packages:publishCanary": "lerna publish from-package --contents dist --dist-tag canary --yes",
     "packages:publishLatest": "lerna publish from-package --contents dist --yes",
     "packages:publishNext": "lerna publish from-package --contents dist --dist-tag next --yes",
+    "packages:publishDev": "lerna publish from-package --contents dist --dist-tag dev --yes --registry http://grafana-npm.local:4873 --force-publish=*",
     "packages:typecheck": "lerna run typecheck",
     "precommit": "grafana-toolkit precommit",
     "prettier:check": "prettier --list-different \"**/*.{ts,tsx,scss}\"",
diff --git a/packages/README.md b/packages/README.md
index 177352e5668..bbd8dfb6ec6 100644
--- a/packages/README.md
+++ b/packages/README.md
@@ -52,3 +52,42 @@ To build individual packages, run:
 ```
 grafana-toolkit package:build --scope=<ui|toolkit|runtime|data>
 ```
+
+### Setting up @grafana/* packages for local development
+
+A known issue with @grafana/* packages is that a lot of times we discover problems on canary channel(see [versioning overview](#Versioning)) when the version was already pushed to npm. 
+
+We can easily avoid that by setting up a local packages registry and test the packages before actually publishing to npm.
+
+In this guide you will set up [Verdaccio](https://verdaccio.org/) registry locally to fake npm registry. This will enable testing @grafana/* packages without the need for pushing to master.
+
+#### Setting up local npm registry
+
+From your terminal: 
+1. Modify `/etc/hosts` file and add the following entry: ```127.0.0.1       grafana-npm.local```
+2. Navigate to `devenv/local-npm` directory. 
+3. Run `docker-compose up`. This will start your local npm registry, available at http://grafana-npm.local:4873/
+4. Run `npm login --registry=http://grafana-npm.local:4873 --scope=@grafana` . This will allow you to publish any @grafana/* package into the local registry.
+5. Run `npm config set @grafana:registry http://grafana-npm.local:4873`. This will config your npm to install @grafana scoped packages from your local registry.
+
+#### Publishing packages to local npm registry
+
+You need to follow [manual packages release procedure](#manual-release). The only difference is you need to run `yarn packages:publishDev` task in order to publish to you local registry.
+
+From your terminal:
+1. Run `yarn packages:prepare`.
+2. Commit changes in package.json and lerna.json files
+3. Build packages: `yarn packages:build`
+4. Run `yarn packages:publishDev`. 
+5. Navigate to http://grafana-npm.local:4873 and verify that version was published
+
+Locally published packages will be published under `dev` channel, so in your plugin package.json file you can use that channel. For  example:
+
+```
+// plugin's package.json
+
+{
+  ...
+  "@grafana/data": "dev"
+}
+```