diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..548f79c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+import readline
+import os
+import hashlib
+import sys
+
+assert len(sys.argv) == 3, "need CHANGESET VERSION"
+cset = sys.argv[1]
+version = sys.argv[2]
+
+os.system("mkdir -p downloads")
+os.chdir("downloads")
+os.system("git clone ../ nitro-" + version)
+os.chdir("nitro-" + version)
+os.system("git checkout " + cset)
+os.chdir("..")
+os.system("tar cf nitro-%s.tar nitro-%s" % (version, version))
+os.system("gzip nitro-%s.tar" % version)
+hash = hashlib.sha1(open("nitro-%s.tar.gz" % version).read())
+open("nitro-%s.tar.gz.sha1" % version, 'wb').write(hash.hexdigest())