diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5cf3f21..85121d2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,2 +1,21 @@
 # release-script
 Scripts to automate the release process.
+
+These scripts automate the release process which to-date has been 
+an intricate manual process. These are the steps:
+
+1. Check-out a current master branch
+2. Create a release candidate branch
+3. Generate release notes
+3. Update version numbers and RELEASE.rst
+4. Commit updates and push branch
+6. Open PR against ``release candidate`` branch
+7. Merge PR once ``travis-ci`` build succeeds
+8. Generate release notes with checkboxes
+8. Open PR against ``release`` branch
+10. Open PR against ``master`` branch
+11. Merge PRs once developers verify their commits
+12. Send email notifications
+
+## Notes
+1. 
diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..3d1e5b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,163 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# A script to automate the release process
+
+# Usage
+#   release working_dir version_num
+
+set -euf -o pipefail
+
+[[ "${TRACE:-}" ]] && set -x
+
+error () {  # error that writes to stderr, not stdout.
+    >&2 echo $@
+}
+
+# Quote nesting works as described here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/6612417/4972
+# SCRIPT_DIR via http://www.ostricher.com/2014/10/the-right-way-to-get-the-directory-of-a-bash-script/
+SCRIPT_DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
+
+# Default variables to empty if not present. Necessary due to the -u option specified above.
+# For more information on this, look here:
+# http://redsymbol.net/articles/unofficial-bash-strict-mode/#solution-positional-parameters
+WORKING_DIR="${1:-}"  # default $1 to empty if it's not supplied 
+VERSION="${2:-}"
+OLD_VERSION=   # set later.
+
+if [[ -z "$WORKING_DIR" ]]; then
+    error "You must specify a working directory as the first argument."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+if [[ -z "$VERSION" ]]; then
+    error "You must specify a version as the second argument."
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Ensures the current working directory doesn't have tracked but uncommitted files in git.
+clean_working_dir () {
+    if [[ "$(git status -s | grep -m1 "^ ")" ]]; then
+        error "Not checking out release. You have uncommitted files in your working directory."
+        exit 1
+    fi
+}
+
+# Check that requisite programs are available
+validate_dependencies () {
+    local -i missing=0
+    if ! hash hub 2>/dev/null; then
+        missing=$missing+1
+        error 'Please install hub https://hub.github.com/'
+    fi
+    if ! hash git 2>/dev/null; then
+        missing=$missing+1
+        error 'Please install git https://git-scm.com/downloads'
+    fi
+    if ! hash perl 2>/dev/null; then
+        missing=$missing+1
+        error 'Please install perl https://www.perl.org/get.html'
+    fi
+
+    if ! hash git-release-notes 2>/dev/null; then
+        missing=$missing+1
+        error 'Please install git-release-notes https://www.npmjs.com/package/git-release-notes'
+    fi
+
+    if [[ 0 -ne $missing ]]; then
+        exit $missing
+    fi
+}
+
+# Updates the local repo
+update_copy () {
+    cd $WORKING_DIR # change to repository working directory
+    clean_working_dir
+    git checkout  master -q
+    git pull -q
+}
+
+set_old_version () {
+    cd $WORKING_DIR
+    OLD_VERSION="$(find . -maxdepth 2 -name 'settings.py' | xargs grep VERSION | tr "\"" ' ' | awk '{print $3}')"
+    if [[ -z "$OLD_VERSION" ]]; then
+        error "Could not determine the old version."
+        exit 1
+    fi
+}
+
+# Checks out the release-candidate branch
+checkout_release () {
+    cd $WORKING_DIR
+    clean_working_dir
+    # Create the branch if it doesn't exist. If it does, just check it out
+    git checkout -qb release-candidate 2>/dev/null || (git checkout -q release-candidate && git merge -q -m "Release $VERSION" master)
+}
+
+
+update_versions () {
+    # maxdepth, so we don't pull things from .tox, etc
+    find $WORKING_DIR -maxdepth 2 -name 'settings.py' | xargs perl -pi -e "s/VERSION = .*/VERSION = \"$VERSION\"/g"
+    find $WORKING_DIR -maxdepth 2 -name 'setup.py' | xargs perl -pi -e "s/version=.*/version='$VERSION',/g"
+}
+
+update_release_notes () {
+    cd $WORKING_DIR
+    # Create/Update RELEASE.rst
+    # +4 is to offset the header of the template we don't want yet.
+    IFS=$'\n'  # sets separator to only newlines. see http://askubuntu.com/a/344418
+    NEW_RELEASE_NOTES=$(git-release-notes v$OLD_VERSION..master $SCRIPT_DIR/util/release_notes_rst.ejs)
+
+    echo 'Release Notes' > releases_rst.new
+    echo '=============' >> releases_rst.new
+    echo '' >> releases_rst.new
+    echo "Version $VERSION" >> releases_rst.new
+    echo '-------------' >> releases_rst.new
+    echo '' >> releases_rst.new
+
+    # we do this because, without it, bash ignores newlines in between the bullets.
+    for line in $NEW_RELEASE_NOTES; do
+        echo $line >> releases_rst.new
+    done;
+    echo '' >> releases_rst.new
+    cat RELEASE.rst >> releases_rst.new
+    mv releases_rst.new RELEASE.rst
+    # explicit add, because we know the location & we will need it for the first release
+    git add RELEASE.rst
+    git commit -q --all --message "Release $VERSION"
+}
+
+
+build_release () {
+    git push -q origin release-candidate:release-candidate
+    echo "Building release..."
+}
+
+generate_prs () {
+    echo "Release $VERSION" > release-notes-checklist
+    echo "" >> release-notes-checklist 
+    git-release-notes v$OLD_VERSION..master $SCRIPT_DIR/util/release_notes.ejs >> release-notes-checklist
+    hub pull-request -b release -h "release-candidate" -F release-notes-checklist
+}
+
+main () {
+    validate_dependencies
+    update_copy
+    checkout_release
+    set_old_version
+    update_versions
+    update_release_notes
+    build_release
+    generate_prs
+    echo "version $OLD_VERSION has been updated to $VERSION"
+    echo "Go tell engineers to check their work. PR is on the repo."
+    echo "After they are done, run the next script."
+}
+
+
+# Next script:
+# - tag build
+# - push tags
+# - merge release-candidate to release
+# - merge release to master
+
+main
diff --git a/util/release_notes.ejs b/util/release_notes.ejs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ebbcacc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/release_notes.ejs
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+<% 
+by_author = {};
+
+commits.forEach(function (commit) {
+  var author = commit.authorName;
+  by_author[author] = by_author[author] || [];
+  by_author[author].push(commit);
+})
+
+Object.keys(by_author).forEach(function (author) {
+  %>## <%= author %>
+<%
+  by_author[author].forEach(function (commit) {
+    %>  - [ ] <%= commit.title %> ([<%= commit.sha1.substring(0,8) %>](../commit/<%= commit.sha1 %>))
+<%
+  });
+  %>
+<%
+});
+%>
diff --git a/util/release_notes_rst.ejs b/util/release_notes_rst.ejs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08ce531
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/release_notes_rst.ejs
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+<% commits.forEach(function (commit) { %>- <%= commit.title %>
+<% }) %>