diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 55472e67..a06fecec 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,5 +9,4 @@ venv
 *.pyc
 .mypy_cache
 .hypothesis
-publish.sh
 pip-wheel-metadata
diff --git a/publish.py b/publish.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..801145f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/publish.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+import argparse
+import re
+import subprocess
+
+version_pattern = '\d\.\d\.\d'
+parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+parser.add_argument('version', help='a SEMVER string X.Y.Z')
+args = parser.parse_args()
+if not re.match(version_pattern, args.version):
+    print('argument must be SEMVER string in format X.Y.Z')
+else:
+    with open('setup.py') as fp:
+        old_setupfile = fp.read()
+    new_setupfile = re.sub(f"version='{version_pattern}'",
+                           f"version='{args.version}'", old_setupfile)
+    with open('setup.py', 'w') as fp:
+        print(new_setupfile, file=fp)
+
+    subprocess.run(['./publish.sh', 'v' + args.version])
diff --git a/publish.sh b/publish.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..edd0c61f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/publish.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+. venv/bin/activate
+git add .
+git commit -m "Release $1"
+git push
+git tag "$1"
+git push --tags
+hub release create "$1"
+portray on_github_pages
+python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
+twine upload dist/*
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ac23fcd4..ab294ddf 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -33,5 +33,9 @@
             'portray'
         ]
     },
-    include_package_data=True
+    include_package_data=True,
+    scripts=['publish.py']
 )
+
+
+