diff --git a/nix/localstack-up.nix b/nix/localstack-up.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0863dec3d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nix/localstack-up.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+{ lib
+, localstack
+, writeShellApplication
+}:
+
+# writeShellApplication is a "writer helper" which
+# will create a shellchecked executable shell script located in $out/bin/<name>
+# This shell script will be used to allow for impure+stateful actions
+writeShellApplication {
+  name = "localstack-up";
+  # Docker must be installed outside of the development shell, so only
+  # pass localstack to script
+  runtimeInputs = [ localstack ];
+  text = builtins.readFile ../scripts/localstack_up.sh;
+}
diff --git a/nix/overlay.nix b/nix/overlay.nix
index 27d6b7be4..11fbd3282 100644
--- a/nix/overlay.nix
+++ b/nix/overlay.nix
@@ -1,121 +1,122 @@
 # An overlay allows for a package set to be extended with new or modified packages
 
 # `final` refers to the package set with all overlays applied.
 # This allows for added or modified packages to be referenced with
 # all relevant changes
 final:
 
 # `prev` refers to the previous package set before this current overlay is applied.
 # This is cheaper for nix to evaluate, thus should be prefered over final when possible.
 prev:
 
 {
   # Patch aws-sdk-cpp to automatically pick up header location
   # specific to nixpkgs, as nixpkgs separates build-time and runtime
   # depencenies (a saving of 400MB in header + generated files).
   # In the case of c and c++, this means the header files are
   # located in a separate directory from the libraries.
   #
   # From a developer perspective, this avoids having to manually specify
   # the header location with `-DAWS_CORE_HEADER_FILE` each time
   # one invokes `cmake` on the command line when using
   # `find_package(AWSSDK COMPONENTS [comps])`
   #
   # For more information, see:
   # - aws-sdk-cpp issue: https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-cpp/issues/2009
   # - Nixpkgs fix: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/182918
   aws-sdk-cpp = (prev.aws-sdk-cpp.overrideAttrs(oldAttrs:{
     postPatch = oldAttrs.postPatch + ''
       substituteInPlace cmake/AWSSDKConfig.cmake \
         --replace 'C:/AWSSDK/''${AWSSDK_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}/aws/core' \
           'C:/AWSSDK/''${AWSSDK_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}/aws/core"
           "${placeholder "dev"}/include/aws/core'
     '';
   })).override {
     # avoid rebuildilng all 300+ apis
     apis = [ "core" "s3" "dynamodb" ];
   };
 
   # add packages meant for just this repository
   amqp-cpp = prev.callPackage ./amqp-cpp.nix { };
 
   arcanist = prev.callPackage ./arcanist.nix { };
 
   better-prompt = prev.callPackage ./better-prompt.nix { };
 
   # c-ares is used to bootstrap curl, so cmake is not available in the default
   # build
   c-ares_cmake-config = prev.c-ares.overrideAttrs(o: {
     nativeBuildInputs = (o.nativeBuildInputs or []) ++ [ prev.cmake ];
   });
 
   protobuf_3_15_cmake = prev.callPackage ./protobuf_3_15.nix { };
 
   devShells.default = final.callPackage ./dev-shell.nix { };
   devShell = final.devShells.default;
 
+  localstack-up = prev.callPackage ./localstack-up.nix { };
   # Make our version of mariadb the default everywhere
   mariadb = prev.mariadb_108;
 
   mariadb-up = prev.callPackage ./mariadb-up-mac.nix { };
 
   mysql-down = prev.callPackage ./mysql-down-linux.nix { };
 
   mysql-up = prev.callPackage ./mysql-up-linux.nix { };
 
   redis-up = prev.callPackage ./redis-up-mac.nix { };
 
   olm = prev.olm.overrideAttrs(oldAttrs: {
     # *.hh files aren't meant to be used externally
     # so we patch installation to add it
     postInstall = ''
       cp \
         $NIX_BUILD_TOP/${oldAttrs.src.name}/include/olm/*.h* \
         ''${!outputDev}/include/olm
     '';
   });
 
   corrosion = prev.corrosion.overrideAttrs(_: {
     patches = [
       # Fix logic around finding cargo and rustc when not managed by rustup
       (prev.fetchpatch {
         url = "https://github.com/corrosion-rs/corrosion/commit/d5330b3f03c7abb4e4da71e35654fa03ecb778bb.patch";
         sha256 = "sha256-jrA30bWNWprkqCiedf+xL7GlR9+9jgOyKAoTPVKkB9c=";
       })
     ];
   });
 
   # 16.14 now requires experimental import assertions syntax, pin to 16.13
   # https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/main/doc/changelogs/CHANGELOG_V16.md
   nodejs-16_x = prev.nodejs-16_x.overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: rec {
     version = "16.13.0";
     name = "nodejs-${version}";
 
     src = prev.fetchurl {
       url = "https://nodejs.org/dist/v${version}/node-v${version}.tar.xz";
       sha256 = "sha256-MhFLPcOUXtD5X4vDO0LGjg7xjECMtWEiVyoWPZB+y8w=";
     };
 
     # Nixpkgs applies two patches for 16.15. One patch is for finding headers
     # needed for v8 on darwin using apple_sdk 11; the other patch fixes crashes
     # related cache dir defaulting to using `$HOME` without asserting that
     # it exists.
     #
     # However, 16.13 doesn't need the second patch, as the regression which
     # caused it was introduced after 16.13. This ends up being a no-op. But
     # nix will still try to apply the patch and fail with "this patch has
     # already been applied".
     #
     # For more context, see (https://github.com/npm/cli/pull/5197)
     #
     # lib.head will select the first element in an array
     patches = [
       (prev.lib.head oldAttrs.patches)
     ];
   });
 
   # Ensure that yarn is using the pinned version
   yarn = prev.yarn.override (_: {
     nodejs = final.nodejs-16_x;
   });
 }
diff --git a/scripts/localstack_up.sh b/scripts/localstack_up.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2b2da6079
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/localstack_up.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# Avoid localstack attempt to write in the nix store
+XDG_DATA_HOME=''${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}
+export FILESYSTEM_ROOT=''${XDG_DATA_HOME}/localstack/filesystem
+
+# Since docker is installed outside of nix, need to ensure that it was
+# installed impurely
+if ! command -v docker > /dev/null; then
+  echo "Please install docker in order to use localstack" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if ! command -v localstack > /dev/null; then
+  echo "Please install localstack cli in order to use localstack" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# The 'localstack status' command will poll forever if you have a newer
+# docker cli, so instead use docker ps + grep to determine running container
+if ! docker ps | grep localstack &> /dev/null; then
+  echo "Starting localstack..." >&2
+  localstack start \
+    --detached \
+    --docker \
+    --no-banner > /dev/null
+else
+  echo "localstack is already running, skipping localstack initialization"
+fi
+
+# Explicitly exit this script so the parent shell can determine
+# when it's safe to return control of terminal to user
+exit 0