diff --git a/tools/README.md b/tools/README.md
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# Tools
+
+This directory contains the source code used to generate the VM image used in NGF tests.
+
+## Building the VM image
+
+To build the VM image, run the following command:
+
+```bash
+packer build -var 'project_id=<PROJECT_ID>' -var 'builder_sa=<BUILDER_SA>' build.pkr.hcl
+```
diff --git a/tools/build.pkr.hcl b/tools/build.pkr.hcl
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+++ b/tools/build.pkr.hcl
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+packer {
+  required_plugins {
+    googlecompute = {
+      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/googlecompute"
+      version = "1.1.3"
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+variable "project_id" {
+  type = string
+}
+
+variable "builder_sa" {
+  type = string
+}
+
+source "googlecompute" "ngf-image" {
+  project_id                  = var.project_id
+  source_image_family         = "debian-12"
+  zone                        = "us-west1-a"
+  image_description           = "Debian VM for NGF testing"
+  ssh_username                = "username"
+  tags                        = ["test-packer"]
+  impersonate_service_account = var.builder_sa
+  image_name                  = "ngf-debian-12-{{timestamp}}"
+  image_family                = "ngf-debian"
+  machine_type                = "n2-standard-4"
+}
+
+build {
+  sources = ["sources.googlecompute.ngf-image"]
+
+  provisioner "shell" {
+    inline = [
+    "curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install -o install-nix.sh",
+    "chmod +x install-nix.sh",
+    "bash install-nix.sh --daemon",
+    "rm install-nix.sh",
+    "sed -i '1i. /etc/bashrc' ~/.bashrc"
+    ]
+  }
+
+  provisioner "file" {
+    source      = "packages.nix"
+    destination = "/tmp/packages.nix"
+
+  }
+  provisioner "shell" {
+    inline = [
+    "nix-env -if /tmp/packages.nix",
+    "sudo apt-get update",
+    "sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests google-cloud-sdk-gke-gcloud-auth-plugin locales",
+    "echo 'en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8' | sudo tee /etc/locale.gen",
+    "sudo locale-gen",
+    ]
+  }
+
+  provisioner "shell" {
+    inline = [
+      "git clone https://github.com/nginxinc/nginx-gateway-fabric.git",
+      "cd nginx-gateway-fabric/tests",
+      "go mod download",
+    ]
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/tools/packages.nix b/tools/packages.nix
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+++ b/tools/packages.nix
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+{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {} }:
+
+[
+    pkgs.gh
+    pkgs.gnumake
+    pkgs.gnuplot
+    pkgs.go
+    pkgs.kubectl
+    pkgs.kubernetes-helm
+    pkgs.rsync
+    pkgs.wrk
+    pkgs.git
+]