diff --git a/tools/release/REAME.md b/tools/release/REAME.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..30157813
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/release/REAME.md
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+PyQtGraph Release Procedure
+---------------------------
+
+0. Create your release_config.py based on release_config.example.py
+
+1. Create a release-x.x.x branch
+
+2. Run build-release script
+    - creates clone of master from github
+    - merges release branch into master
+    - updates version numbers in code
+    - creates pyqtgraph-x.x.x tag
+    - creates release commit
+    - builds source dist
+    - builds windows dists
+    - builds deb dist
+
+3. test build files
+    - test setup.py, pip on OSX
+    - test 32/64 exe on windows
+    - deb on linux (py2, py3)
+    - source install on linux (py2, py3)
+    
+4. Run upload-release script
+    - pip upload
+    - github push + release
+    - website upload
+
+5. publish
+    - update website
+    - mailing list announcement
+    - new conda recipe  (http://conda.pydata.org/docs/build.html)
+    - contact deb maintainer
+    - other package maintainers?
diff --git a/tools/release/build-pg-release.py b/tools/release/build-pg-release.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..b9ae5bdd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/release/build-pg-release.py
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+from common import *
+
+
+usage = """
+Usage: build_pg_release.py x.y.z
+
+    * Will attempt to clone branch release-x.y.z from %s.
+    * Will attempt to contact windows host at %s (suggest running bitvise ssh server).
+""" % (sourcedir, winhost)
+
+
+if len(sys.argv) != 2:
+    print usage
+    sys.exit(-1)
+version = sys.argv[1]
+if re.match(r'\d+\.\d+.*', version) is None:
+    print 'Invalid version number "%s".' % version
+    sys.exit(-1)
+
+
+# Clone source repository and tag the release branch
+shell('''
+    # Clone and merge release branch
+    cd {bld}
+    rm -rf pyqtgraph
+    git clone --depth 1 -b master http://github.com/pyqtgraph/pyqtgraph
+    cd {bld}/pyqtgraph
+    git checkout -b release-{ver}
+    git pull {src} release-{ver}
+    git checkout master
+    git merge --no-ff --no-commit release-{ver}
+    
+    # Write new version number into the source
+    sed -i "s/__version__ = .*/__version__ = '{ver}'/" pyqtgraph/__init__.py
+    #sed -i "s/    version=.*,/    version='{ver}',/" setup.py  # now automated
+    sed -i "s/version = .*/version = '{ver}'/" doc/source/conf.py
+    sed -i "s/release = .*/release = '{ver}'/" doc/source/conf.py
+    
+    # make sure changelog mentions unreleased changes
+    grep "pyqtgraph-{ver}.*unreleased.*" CHANGELOG    
+    sed -i "s/pyqtgraph-{ver}.*unreleased.*/pyqtgraph-{ver}/" CHANGELOG
+
+    # Commit and tag new release
+    git commit -a -m "PyQtGraph release {ver}"
+    git tag pyqtgraph-{ver}
+
+    # Build HTML documentation
+    cd doc
+        make clean
+        make html
+    cd ..
+    find ./ -name "*.pyc" -delete
+
+    # package source distribution
+    python setup.py sdist
+    
+    # test pip install source distribution
+    rm -rf release-{ver}-virtenv
+    virtualenv --system-site-packages release-{ver}-virtenv
+    . release-{ver}-virtenv/bin/activate
+    echo "PATH: $PATH"
+    echo "ENV: $VIRTUAL_ENV" 
+    pip install --no-index dist/pyqtgraph-{ver}.tar.gz
+    deactivate
+
+    # build deb packages
+    #python setup.py --command-packages=stdeb.command bdist_deb
+    python setup.py --command-packages=stdeb.command sdist_dsc
+    cd deb_dist/pyqtgraph-{ver}
+    sed -i "s/^Depends:.*/Depends: python (>= 2.6), python-qt4 | python-pyside, python-numpy/" debian/control    
+    dpkg-buildpackage
+    cd ../../
+    mv deb_dist dist/pyqtgraph-{ver}-deb
+'''.format(**vars))
+
+
+# build windows installers
+if winhost is not None:
+    shell("# Build windows executables")
+    ssh(winhost, '''
+        rmdir /s/q pyqtgraph-build
+        git clone {self}:{bld}/pyqtgraph pyqtgraph-build
+        cd pyqtgraph-build
+        python setup.py build --plat-name=win32 bdist_wininst
+        python setup.py build --plat-name=win-amd64 bdist_wininst
+        exit
+    '''.format(**vars))
+
+    shell('''
+        scp {win}:pyqtgraph-build/dist/*.exe {bld}/pyqtgraph/dist/
+    '''.format(**vars))
+
+
+print """
+
+======== Build complete. =========
+
+* Dist files in {bld}/pyqtgraph/dist
+""".format(**vars)
+
+
+if winhost is not None:
+    print """    * Dist files on windows host at {win}:pyqtgraph-build/dist
+    """.format(**vars)
+
+
+
diff --git a/tools/release/common.py b/tools/release/common.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..75b5d775
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/release/common.py
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+import os, sys, getopt, re
+import subprocess as sp
+
+try:
+    from release_config import *
+except ImportError:
+    print "Error: could not import release_config! See the README..\n\n"
+    raise
+
+
+vars = dict(ver=version, src=sourcedir, bld=builddir, win=winhost, self=selfhost)    
+
+
+def shell(cmd):
+    """Run each line of a shell script; raise an exception if any line returns
+    a nonzero value.
+    """
+    pin, pout = os.pipe()
+    proc = sp.Popen('/bin/sh', stdin=sp.PIPE)
+    for line in cmd.split('\n'):
+        line = line.strip()
+        if line.startswith('#'):
+            print '\033[33m> ' + line + '\033[0m'
+        else:
+            print '\033[32m> ' + line + '\033[0m'
+        if line.startswith('cd '):
+            os.chdir(line[3:])
+        proc.stdin.write(line + '\n')
+        proc.stdin.write('echo $? 1>&%d\n' % pout)
+        ret = ""
+        while not ret.endswith('\n'):
+            ret += os.read(pin, 1)
+        ret = int(ret.strip())
+        if ret != 0:
+            print "Error, bailing out."
+            sys.exit(-1)
+    proc.stdin.close()
+    proc.wait()
+
+
+def ssh(host, cmd):
+    """Run commands on a remote host by ssh.
+    """
+    proc = sp.Popen(['ssh', host], stdin=sp.PIPE)
+    proc.stdin.write(cmd)
+    proc.wait()
+
diff --git a/tools/release/release_config.example.py b/tools/release/release_config.example.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..35d569e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/release/release_config.example.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+"""
+Example configuration file required by build-pg-release and upload-pg-release.
+
+Copy this file to release_config.py and edit.
+"""
+
+# Where to find the repository from which the release files will be built.
+# This repository must have a branch called release-x.y.z
+sourcedir = '/home/user/pyqtgraph'
+
+# Where to generate build files--source packages, deb packages, .exe installers, etc.
+builddir = '/home/user/pyqtgraph-build'
+
+# Where to archive build files (optional)
+archivedir = builddir + '/archive'
+
+# A windows machine (typically a VM) running an SSH server for automatically building .exe installers
+winhost = 'luke@192.168.56.101'
diff --git a/tools/setVersion.py b/tools/release/setVersion.py
similarity index 100%
rename from tools/setVersion.py
rename to tools/release/setVersion.py
diff --git a/tools/release/upload-pg-release.py b/tools/release/upload-pg-release.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..7a538c87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/release/upload-pg-release.py
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+
+from release_config import *
+import os
+
+usage = """
+upload-pg-release.py x.y.z
+
+    * Uploads source dist to pypi
+    * Uploads packages & docs to website
+    * Pushes new master branch to github
+
+""" % (source, winhost)
+
+
+
+pypi_err = """
+Missing ~/.pypirc file. Should look like:
+-----------------------------------------
+
+[distutils]
+index-servers =
+    pypi
+
+[pypi]
+username:your_username
+password:your_password
+
+"""
+
+if not os.path.isfile(os.path.expanduser('~/.pypirc')):
+    print pypi_err
+    sys.exit(-1)
+
+### Upload everything to server
+shell("""
+    # Uploading documentation..
+    cd pyqtgraph
+    rsync -rv doc/build/* slice:/www/code/pyqtgraph/pyqtgraph/documentation/build/
+
+    # Uploading source dist to website
+    rsync -v dist/pyqtgraph-{ver}.tar.gz slice:/www/code/pyqtgraph/downloads/
+    cp dist/pyqtgraph-{ver}.tar.gz ../archive
+
+    # Upload deb to website
+    rsync -v dist/pyqtgraph-{ver}-deb/python-pyqtgraph_{ver}-1_all.deb slice:/www/code/pyqtgraph/downloads/
+    
+    # Update APT repository..
+    ssh slice "cd /www/debian; ln -sf /www/code/pyqtgraph/downloads/*.deb dev/; dpkg-scanpackages dev /dev/null | gzip -9c > dev/Packages.gz"
+    cp -a dist/pyqtgraph-{ver}-deb ../archive/
+
+    # Uploading windows executables..
+    rsync -v dist/*.exe slice:/www/code/pyqtgraph/downloads/
+    cp dist/*.exe ../archive/
+
+    # Push to github
+    git push --tags https://github.com/pyqtgraph/pyqtgraph master:master
+
+    # Upload to pypi..
+    python setup.py sdist upload
+    
+    
+""".format(**vars))
+
+print """
+
+======== Upload complete. =========
+
+Next steps to publish:
+    - update website
+    - mailing list announcement
+    - new conda recipe (http://conda.pydata.org/docs/build.html)
+    - contact deb maintainer (gianfranco costamagna)
+    - other package maintainers?
+
+""".format(**vars)