diff --git a/plugin/plugin.jelly b/plugin/plugin.jelly
index b9e6242d..e2bd2982 100644
--- a/plugin/plugin.jelly
+++ b/plugin/plugin.jelly
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 <?xml version="1.0"?>
 
 <project
+  xmlns:http="jelly:http"
   xmlns:j="jelly:core"
+  xmlns:maven="jelly:maven"
   xmlns:u="jelly:util"
   xmlns:x="jelly:xml">
 
@@ -159,4 +161,24 @@
 
     </j:if>
   </goal>
+  
+  <!-- download a plugin from a remote repo -->
+  <goal name="plugin:download">
+    <maven:param-check value="${artifactId}" fail="true" message="'artifactId' must be specified"/>
+    <maven:param-check value="${groupId}" fail="true" message="'groupId' must be specified"/>
+    <maven:param-check value="${version}" fail="true" message="'version' must be specified"/>
+    <j:set var="repoList">${maven.repo.remote}</j:set>
+    <u:tokenize var="repos" delim=",">${repoList.trim()}</u:tokenize>
+    <j:forEach var="repo" items="${repos}">
+      <echo>repo is '${repo}'</echo>
+      <u:file var="localPlugin" 
+        name="${maven.home}/plugins/${artifactId}-${version}.jar" />
+      <j:if test="${!localPlugin.exists()}">
+        <j:set var="remoteFile"
+          value="${repo}/${groupId}/jars/${artifactId}-${version}.jar" />
+        <echo>trying to download ${remoteFile}</echo>
+        <http:get uri="${remoteFile}" var="outputVar" />
+      </j:if>
+    </j:forEach>
+  </goal>
 </project>
diff --git a/plugin/project.xml b/plugin/project.xml
index 967c4132..1dde8e00 100644
--- a/plugin/project.xml
+++ b/plugin/project.xml
@@ -41,5 +41,17 @@
       <version>20030211.142705</version>
       <url>http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/jelly/libs/xml/</url>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>commons-jelly</groupId>
+      <artifactId>commons-jelly-tags-http</artifactId>
+      <version>20030211.143043</version>
+      <url>http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/jelly/libs/http/</url>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>commons-httpclient</groupId>
+      <artifactId>commons-httpclient</artifactId>
+      <version>2.0-rc1</version>
+      <url>http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/httpclient/</url>
+    </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 </project>