diff --git a/tools/releasenotes_tox.sh b/tools/releasenotes_tox.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..060aa5812fe0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/releasenotes_tox.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+rm -rf releasenotes/build
+
+sphinx-build -a -E -W \
+    -d releasenotes/build/doctrees \
+    -b html \
+    releasenotes/source releasenotes/build/html
+
+UNCOMMITTED_NOTES=$(git status --porcelain | \
+    awk '$1 == "M" && $2 ~ /releasenotes\/notes/ {print $2}')
+
+if [ "${UNCOMMITTED_NOTES}" ]
+then
+    cat <<EOF
+
+REMINDER: The following changes to release notes have not been committed:
+
+${UNCOMMITTED_NOTES}
+
+While that may be intentional, keep in mind that release notes are built from
+committed changes, not the working directory.
+
+EOF
+fi
+
+exit ${BUILD_RESULT}
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 4a353e12ce15..72bbbe9aa34f 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -129,9 +129,7 @@ commands = bandit -c bandit.yaml -r nova -n 5 -ll
 # upstream infra does not yet support it. Once that's fixed, we can
 # drop the install_command.
 install_command = pip install -U --force-reinstall {opts} {packages}
-commands =
-  rm -rf releasenotes/build
-  sphinx-build -a -E -W -d releasenotes/build/doctrees -b html releasenotes/source releasenotes/build/html
+commands = bash -c tools/releasenotes_tox.sh
 
 [flake8]
 # E125 is deliberately excluded. See https://github.com/jcrocholl/pep8/issues/126