diff --git a/docs/developing.rst b/docs/developing.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..72cfc56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/developing.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+Pynng Developer Notes
+=====================
+
+A list of notes, useful only to developers of the library, and not for users.
+
+Testing without pulling dependencies from GitHub
+------------------------------------------------
+
+It can lower feedback speed dramatically when testing pynng, and needing to clone
+`nng`_ and `mbedtls`_ from GitHub. If you are just doing this
+one time, it is not terrible, but when you're working on *how pynng is built* it is
+tedious and painful to wait for a slow internet connection.  This can be mitigated by
+cloning nng and mbedtls outside of this repository, running a git server, and pointing
+the ``setup.cfg`` script to
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   # clone *once* locally
+   git clone https://github.com/nanomsg/nng ~/pynng-deps/nanomsg/nng
+   git clone https://github.com/Mbed-TLS/mbedtls ~/pynng-deps/Mbed-TLS/mbedtls
+   # start a git daemon in the parent directory
+   git daemon --reuseaddr --base-path="$HOME/pynng-deps" --export-all
+
+Then change the ``setup.cfg`` to point to the local git server. Change the ``repo``
+lines from ``repo=https://github.com/nanomsg/nng`` to
+``repo=git://127.0.0.1:/nanomsg/nng``. The relevant sections of the file will look like
+this:
+
+.. code-block:: cfg
+
+   [build_nng]
+   repo=git://127.0.0.1:/nanomsg/nng
+
+   [build_mbedtls]
+   repo=git://127.0.0.1:/Mbed-TLS/mbedtls
+
+Testing CI changes
+------------------
+
+When testing CI changes, it can be painful, embarrassing, and tedious, to push changes
+just to see how CI does. Sometimes this is necessary, for example for architectures or
+operating systems you do not own so cannot test on. However, you *can* test CI somewhat
+using the incredible `nektos/act`_ tool. It enables running Github Actions locally. We
+do need to pass some flags to make the tool do what we want.
+
+If you have single failing tests, you can narrow down the build by setting specific
+`cibuildwheel options`_ in the ``pyproject.toml`` file, to skip certain Python versions
+or architectures.
+
+Running CI Locally
+##################
+
+Use this command to run Github Actions locally using the `nektos/act`_ tool
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   # run cibuildwheel, using ubuntu-20.04 image
+   # This is how  you test on Linux
+   # Needs --container-options='-u root' so cibuildwheel can launch its own docker containers
+   act --container-options='-u root' \
+       -W .github/workflows/cibuildwheel.yml \
+       --matrix os:ubuntu-20.04 \
+       --pull=false \
+       --artifact-server-path=artifacts
+
+``--pull=false`` prevents downloading the latest runner docker image.
+``--artifact-server-path=artifacts`` enables an artifact server, and lets you look at
+the built artifacts afterwards.
+
+Making a new release
+--------------------
+
+Making a new release is a potentially error-prone process; the file
+``pynng/_version.py`` must be increased, the change must be committed, the commit must
+be tagged, and the following commit should append "+dev" to the version. CI should run,
+then the artifacts need to be collected and pushed to PyPI. The ``sdist`` is built
+manually.
+
+Anyway, there is a script to automate this:
+
+.. literalinclude:: ../new_release.sh
+   :language: bash
+
+.. _cibuildwheel options: https://cibuildwheel.readthedocs.io/en/stable/options/
+.. _mbedtls: https://github.com/Mbed-TLS/mbedtls
+.. _nektos/act: https://github.com/nektos/act
+.. _nng: https://github.com/nanomsg/nng
+
diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
index 1d9fa5f..154ce39 100644
--- a/docs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ Getting Started
 
    core
    exceptions
+   developing
 
 
 Indices and tables
diff --git a/new_release.sh b/new_release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..38eda63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/new_release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#!/usr/bin/bash
+
+# Create a new release of pynng.
+# This script ensures that the version in pynng/_version.py is consistent with the
+# repository tag. It then adds "+dev" the revision in pynng/_version.py, so that the
+# tagged release is on *exactly one* revision.
+#
+# This script changes the state of your repository, so be careful with it!
+function usage() {
+    echo >&2 "$0 RELEASE"
+    echo >&2 "    RELEASE must be of the form major.minor.micro, e.g. 0.12.4"
+    exit
+}
+
+if [ "$#" -lt "1" ]; then
+    echo >&2 "Not enough args: Must provide a new release version"
+    usage
+    exit
+fi
+
+VERSION_FILE=pynng/_version.py
+
+new_version="$1"
+
+# make sure the new version actually has the right pattern
+if ! echo "$new_version" | grep -E "^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$" > /dev/null; then
+    echo >&2 "RELEASE must match pattern MAJOR.MINOR.MICRO"
+    usage
+fi
+
+echo "__version__ = \"$new_version\"" > $VERSION_FILE
+git add $VERSION_FILE
+git commit -m "Version bump to v$new_version"
+git tag -a v"$new_version" -m "Release version $new_version"
+echo "__version__ = \"$new_version+dev\"" > $VERSION_FILE
+git add $VERSION_FILE
+git commit -a -m "Add +dev to version ($new_version+dev)"