diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85e0f06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+# simple Makefile for some common tasks
+.PHONY: clean test dist release pypi tagv docs
+
+clean:
+	find . -name "*.pyc" |xargs rm || true
+	rm -r dist || true
+	rm -r build || true
+	rm -r .tox || true
+	rm -r .testrepository || true
+	rm -r cover .coverage || true
+	rm -r .eggs || true
+	rm -r microversion_parse.egg-info || true
+
+tagv:
+	git tag \
+		-m `python -c 'import microversion_parse; print microversion_parse.__version__'` \
+		`python -c 'import microversion_parse; print microversion_parse.__version__'`
+	git push origin master --tags
+
+cleanagain:
+	find . -name "*.pyc" |xargs rm || true
+	rm -r dist || true
+	rm -r build || true
+	rm -r .tox || true
+	rm -r .testrepository || true
+	rm -r cover .coverage || true
+	rm -r .eggs || true
+	rm -r microversion_parse.egg-info || true
+
+docs:
+	cd docs ; $(MAKE) html
+
+test:
+	tox
+
+dist: test
+	python setup.py sdist
+
+release: clean test cleanagain tagv pypi
+
+pypi:
+	python setup.py sdist upload
diff --git a/microversion_parse/__init__.py b/microversion_parse/__init__.py
index 4024489..0bd5771 100644
--- a/microversion_parse/__init__.py
+++ b/microversion_parse/__init__.py
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
+__version__ = '0.1.0'
+
 import collections