diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index f8e3668de11..bdf3855b275 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -155,6 +155,7 @@ help:
 	@echo " - build                            build everything"
 	@echo " - frontend                         build frontend files"
 	@echo " - backend                          build backend files"
+	@echo " - watch                            watch everything and continuously rebuild"
 	@echo " - watch-frontend                   watch frontend files and continuously rebuild"
 	@echo " - watch-backend                    watch backend files and continuously rebuild"
 	@echo " - clean                            delete backend and integration files"
@@ -316,6 +317,10 @@ lint-frontend: node_modules
 .PHONY: lint-backend
 lint-backend: golangci-lint revive vet
 
+.PHONY: watch
+watch:
+	bash tools/watch.sh
+
 .PHONY: watch-frontend
 watch-frontend: node-check $(FOMANTIC_DEST) node_modules
 	rm -rf $(WEBPACK_DEST_ENTRIES)
diff --git a/docs/content/doc/advanced/hacking-on-gitea.en-us.md b/docs/content/doc/advanced/hacking-on-gitea.en-us.md
index 0c8ab419e4c..1d2702a5e89 100644
--- a/docs/content/doc/advanced/hacking-on-gitea.en-us.md
+++ b/docs/content/doc/advanced/hacking-on-gitea.en-us.md
@@ -94,14 +94,10 @@ See `make help` for all available `make` targets. Also see [`.drone.yml`](https:
 
 ## Building continuously
 
-Both the `frontend` and `backend` targets can be ran continuously when source files change:
+To run and continously rebuild when source files change:
 
 ````bash
-# in your first terminal
-make watch-backend
-
-# in your second terminal
-make watch-frontend
+make watch
 ````
 
 On macOS, watching all backend source files may hit the default open files limit which can be increased via `ulimit -n 12288` for the current shell or in your shell startup file for all future shells.
diff --git a/tools/watch.sh b/tools/watch.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..61e3dc40a25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/watch.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+make watch-frontend &
+make watch-backend &
+
+trap 'kill $(jobs -p)' EXIT
+wait