diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..620e579
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+format:
+	docker run -it --rm -e HOME=/home -v $(PWD):/home/tf -w /home/tf hashicorp/terraform:light fmt -recursive
+
+release:
+	bash release.sh
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..77d6f4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+0.0.0
diff --git a/release.sh b/release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..81421f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# adopted from https://medium.com/travis-on-docker/how-to-version-your-docker-images-1d5c577ebf54
+
+set -ex
+
+docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/app treeder/bump patch
+version="v$(cat VERSION)"
+echo "Current Version: $version"
+
+git add VERSION
+git commit -m "[ci skip] tagging new version $version"
+git tag -a "$version" -m "version $version"
+git push
+git push --tags