diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b95b0bde..6ba92c1b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 *.class
 *.log
 *.pyc
+python/.setup.sh
 build/*.jar
 
 docs/_site
diff --git a/dev/build-docs.sh b/dev/build-docs.sh
index 587e284d..b9dd3b66 100755
--- a/dev/build-docs.sh
+++ b/dev/build-docs.sh
@@ -10,4 +10,5 @@ docker build -t databricks/sparkdl-docs docs/
 build/sbt assembly
 
 # build the API docs
-docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/mnt/sparkdl" databricks/sparkdl-docs dev/build-docs-in-docker.sh
+docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/mnt/sparkdl" databricks/sparkdl-docs \
+    bash -i -c dev/build-docs-in-docker.sh
diff --git a/dev/release.py b/dev/release.py
index 90d4b187..2d7d7721 100755
--- a/dev/release.py
+++ b/dev/release.py
@@ -1,12 +1,18 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 import click
+from datetime import datetime
 from six.moves import input
 from subprocess import check_call, check_output
 import sys
 
-WORKING_BRANCH = "PREP_RELEASE_%s"
 DATABRICKS_REMOTE = "git@github.com:databricks/spark-deep-learning.git"
-PUBLISH_MODES = {"local": "publishLocal", "m2": "publishM2", "spark-package": "spDist"}
+PUBLISH_MODES = {"local": "publishLocal", "m2": "publishM2", "spark-package-publish": "spPublish"}
+
+WORKING_BRANCH = "WORKING_BRANCH_RELEASE_%s_@%s"
+# lower case "z" puts the branch at the end of the github UI.
+WORKING_DOCS_BRANCH = "zWORKING_BRANCH_DOCS_%s_@%s"
+RELEASE_TAG = "v%s"
+
 
 def prominentPrint(x):
     x = str(x)
@@ -30,9 +36,12 @@ def verify(prompt, interactive):
 @click.option("--publish-to", default="local",
               help="Where to publish artifact, one of: %s" % list(PUBLISH_MODES.keys()))
 @click.option("--no-prompt", is_flag=True, help="Automated mode with no user prompts.")
-def main(release_version, next_version, publish_to, no_prompt):
+@click.option("--git-remote", default=DATABRICKS_REMOTE,
+              help="Push current branch and docs to this git remote.")
+def main(release_version, next_version, publish_to, no_prompt, git_remote):
     interactive = not no_prompt
 
+    time = datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H-%M-%S")
     if publish_to not in PUBLISH_MODES:
         modes = list(PUBLISH_MODES.keys())
         print("Unknown publish target, --publish-to should be one of: %s." % modes)
@@ -47,22 +56,32 @@ def main(release_version, next_version, publish_to, no_prompt):
         sys.exit(1)
 
     current_branch = check_output(["git", "rev-parse", "--abbrev-ref", "HEAD"]).strip()
-    if current_branch != "master":
+    if current_branch != b"master":
         if not verify("You're not on the master branch do you want to continue? (y/n)",
                       interactive):
             sys.exit(1)
 
     uncommitted_changes = check_output(["git", "diff", "--stat"])
-    if uncommitted_changes != "":
+    if uncommitted_changes != b"":
         print(uncommitted_changes)
         print("There seem to be uncommitted changes on your current branch. Please commit or "
               "stash them and try again.")
         sys.exit(1)
 
-    working_branch = WORKING_BRANCH % release_version
-    if working_branch in check_output(["git", "branch"]):
-        prominentPrint(
-            "Working branch %s already exists, please delete it and try again." % working_branch)
+    working_branch = WORKING_BRANCH % (release_version, time)
+    gh_pages_branch = WORKING_DOCS_BRANCH % (release_version, time)
+
+    release_tag = RELEASE_TAG % release_version
+    target_tags = [release_tag]
+
+    existing_tags = check_output(["git", "tag"]).decode().split()
+    conflict_tags = list(filter(lambda a: a in existing_tags, target_tags))
+    if conflict_tags:
+        msg = ("The following tags already exist:\n"
+               "    %s\n"
+               "Please delete them and try.")
+        msg = msg % "\n    ".join(conflict_tags)
+        prominentPrint(msg)
         sys.exit(1)
 
     prominentPrint("Creating working branch for this release.")
@@ -73,7 +92,7 @@ def main(release_version, next_version, publish_to, no_prompt):
     check_call(["./build/sbt", update_version])
 
     prominentPrint("Building and testing with sbt.")
-    check_call(["git", "checkout", "v%s" % release_version])
+    check_call(["git", "checkout", release_tag])
 
     publish_target = PUBLISH_MODES[publish_to]
     check_call(["./build/sbt", "clean", publish_target])
@@ -84,8 +103,31 @@ def main(release_version, next_version, publish_to, no_prompt):
     check_call(["git", "branch", "-d", working_branch])
 
     prominentPrint("Local branch updated")
-    if verify("Would you like to push local branch to databricks remote? (y/n)", interactive):
-        check_call(["git", "push", DATABRICKS_REMOTE, current_branch])
+    if verify("Would you like to push local branch & version tag to remote: %s? (y/n)" % git_remote,
+              interactive):
+        check_call(["git", "push", git_remote, current_branch])
+        check_call(["git", "push", git_remote, release_tag])
+
+    prominentPrint("Building release docs")
+
+    if not verify("Would you like to build release docs? (y/n)", interactive):
+        # All done, exit happy
+        sys.exit(0)
+
+    check_call(["git", "checkout", "-b", gh_pages_branch, release_tag])
+    check_call(["./dev/build-docs.sh"])
+
+    commit_message = "Build docs for release %s." % release_version
+    check_call(["git", "add", "-f", "docs/_site"])
+    check_call(["git", "commit", "-m", commit_message])
+    msg = "Would you like to push docs branch to %s and update gh-pages branch? (y/n)"
+    msg %= git_remote
+    if verify(msg, interactive):
+        check_call(["git", "push", git_remote, gh_pages_branch])
+        check_call(["git", "push", "-f", git_remote, gh_pages_branch+":gh-pages"])
+
+    check_call(["git", "checkout", current_branch])
+    check_call(["git", "branch", "-D", gh_pages_branch])
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":