diff --git a/contrib/flavor/cwl_dockers/packages-bcbio-alignment.yaml b/contrib/flavor/cwl_dockers/packages-bcbio-alignment.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7439b7c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/flavor/cwl_dockers/packages-bcbio-alignment.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+bcbio-process_alignment:
+- bwa
+- bwakit
+- novoalign
+- snap-aligner
+- samtools
+- sambamba
+- fgbio
+- umis
+- biobambam
+channels:
+- bioconda
+- conda-forge
+
diff --git a/utils/cwl2yaml_packages.py b/utils/cwl2yaml_packages.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1a03740a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/utils/cwl2yaml_packages.py
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# Parses CWL's "SoftwareRequirement" hints section and dumps a cbl compatible yaml file.
+# The purpose with this script is to create smaller composable docker containers for bcbio-nextgen.
+#
+# Usage: cwl2yaml_packages.py test_bcbio_cwl/run_info-cwl-workflow/steps/process_alignment.cwl > cloudbiolinux/contrib/flavor/cwl_dockers/packages-bcbio-alignment.yaml
+import os
+import sys
+import yaml
+
+CWL_STEPS=sys.argv[1]
+cwl_pkgs=yaml.safe_load(open(CWL_STEPS,'r'))
+cbl_yml=dict()
+cbl_pkgs=[]
+
+# take the filename as the flavor/dockerfile name
+cbl_flavor="bcbio-"+os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(sys.argv[1]))[0]
+
+for pkg in cwl_pkgs['hints'][1]['packages']:
+    cbl_pkgs.append(pkg['package'])
+
+cbl_yml['channels']=['bioconda', 'conda-forge']
+cbl_yml[cbl_flavor]=cbl_pkgs
+
+#print cbl_yml
+
+print yaml.safe_dump(cbl_yml, default_flow_style=False, indent=4)
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