diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7b4c5d36cb4..bc324b5f826 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -109,13 +109,14 @@ Podfile.lock
 # IDE specific folder for JetBrains IDEs
 .idea/
 
-# Blaze files
+# Bazel files
 bazel-bin
 bazel-genfiles
 bazel-grpc
 bazel-out
 bazel-testlogs
 bazel_format_virtual_environment/
+tools/bazel-*
 
 # Debug output
 gdb.txt
diff --git a/tools/bazel.sh b/tools/bazel.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..804b974700b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/bazel.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Keeping up with Bazel's breaking changes is currently difficult.
+# This script wraps calling bazel by downloading the currently
+# supported version, and then calling it. This way, we can make sure
+# that running bazel will always get meaningful results, at least
+# until Bazel 1.0 is released.
+
+set -e
+
+VERSION=0.24.1
+
+CWD=`pwd`
+BASEURL=https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/releases/download/
+cd `dirname $0`
+TOOLDIR=`pwd`
+
+case `uname -sm` in
+  "Linux x86_64")
+    suffix=linux-x86_64
+    ;;
+  "Darwin x86_64")
+    suffix=darwin-x86_64
+    ;;
+  *)
+    echo "Unsupported architecture: `uname -sm`"
+    exit 1
+    ;;
+esac
+
+filename=bazel-$VERSION-$suffix
+
+if [ ! -x $filename ] ; then
+  curl -L $BASEURL/$VERSION/$filename > $filename
+  chmod a+x $filename
+fi
+
+cd $CWD
+$TOOLDIR/$filename $@