diff --git a/scripts/publish.py b/scripts/publish.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b8c35604d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/publish.py
@@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
+#! /bin/python3
+
+# This is a script for publishing the wasmer crates to crates.io.
+# It should be run in the root of wasmer like `python3 scripts/publish.py`.
+
+# install dependencies:
+# pip3 install toposort
+
+import argparse
+import os
+import re
+import subprocess
+import time
+
+from typing import Optional
+from toposort import toposort_flatten
+
+
+# TODO find this automatically
+target_version = "1.0.0-alpha01.1"
+
+# TODO generate this by parsing toml files
+dep_graph = {
+    "wasmer-types": set([]),
+    "wasmer-vm": set(["wasmer-types"]),
+    "wasmer-compiler": set(["wasmer-vm", "wasmer-types"]),
+    "wasmer-object": set(["wasmer-types", "wasmer-compiler"]),
+    "wasmer-engine": set(["wasmer-types", "wasmer-vm", "wasmer-compiler"]),
+    "wasmer-compiler-singlepass": set(["wasmer-types", "wasmer-vm", "wasmer-compiler"]),
+    "wasmer-compiler-cranelift": set(["wasmer-types", "wasmer-vm", "wasmer-compiler"]),
+    "wasmer-compiler-llvm": set(["wasmer-types", "wasmer-vm", "wasmer-compiler"]),
+    "wasmer-engine-jit": set(["wasmer-types", "wasmer-vm", "wasmer-compiler", "wasmer-engine"]),
+    "wasmer-engine-native": set(["wasmer-types", "wasmer-vm", "wasmer-compiler", "wasmer-engine",
+                                 "wasmer-object"]),
+    "wasmer": set(["wasmer-vm", "wasmer-compiler-singlepass", "wasmer-compiler-cranelift",
+                   "wasmer-compiler-llvm", "wasmer-compiler", "wasmer-engine", "wasmer-engine-jit",
+                   "wasmer-engine-native", "wasmer-types"]),
+    "wasmer-cache": set(["wasmer"]),
+    "wasmer-wasi": set(["wasmer"]),
+    "wasmer-wasi-experimental-io-devices": set(["wasmer-wasi"]),
+    "wasmer-emscripten": set(["wasmer"]),
+}
+
+# where each crate is located in `lib`
+# this can also be generated from the toml files
+location = {
+    "wasmer-types": "wasmer-types",
+    "wasmer-vm": "vm",
+    "wasmer-compiler": "compiler",
+    "wasmer-object": "object",
+    "wasmer-engine": "engine",
+    "wasmer-compiler-singlepass": "compiler-singlepass",
+    "wasmer-compiler-cranelift": "compiler-cranelift",
+    "wasmer-compiler-llvm": "compiler-llvm",
+    "wasmer-engine": "engine",
+    "wasmer-engine-jit": "engine-jit",
+    "wasmer-engine-native": "engine-native",
+    "wasmer-cache": "cache",
+    "wasmer": "api",
+    "wasmer-wasi": "wasi",
+    "wasmer-emscripten": "emscripten",
+    "wasmer-wasi-experimental-io-devices": "wasi-experimental-io-devices",
+}
+
+dry_run = False
+
+def get_latest_version_for_crate(crate_name: str) -> Optional[str]:
+    output = subprocess.run(["cargo", "search", crate_name], capture_output=True)
+    rexp_src = '^{} = "([^"]+)"'.format(crate_name)
+    prog = re.compile(rexp_src)
+    haystack = output.stdout.decode("utf-8")
+    for line in haystack.splitlines():
+        result = prog.match(line)
+        if result:
+            return result.group(1)
+
+def is_crate_already_published(crate_name: str) -> bool:
+    found_string = get_latest_version_for_crate(crate_name)
+    if found_string is None:
+        return False
+
+    return target_version == found_string
+    
+# TODO: add dry run mode
+def publish_crate(crate: str):
+    os.chdir("lib/{}".format(location[crate]))
+
+    global dry_run
+    if dry_run:
+        print("In dry-run: not publishing crate `{}`".format(crate))
+    else:
+        output = subprocess.run(["cargo", "publish"])
+
+    os.chdir("../..")
+
+def main():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Publish the Wasmer crates to crates.io')
+    parser.add_argument('--dry-run', default=False, action='store_true',
+                        help='Run the script without actually publishing anything to crates.io')
+    args = vars(parser.parse_args())
+
+    global dry_run
+    dry_run = args['dry_run']
+
+    # get the order to publish the crates in
+    order = list(toposort_flatten(dep_graph, sort=True))
+
+    for crate in order:
+        print("Publishing `{}`...".format(crate))
+        if not is_crate_already_published(crate):
+            publish_crate(crate)
+        else:
+            print("`{}` was already published!".format(crate))
+            continue
+        # sleep for 10 seconds between crates to ensure the crates.io index has time to update
+        # this can be optimized with knowledge of our dep graph via toposort; we can even publish
+        # crates in parallel; however this is out of scope for the first version of this script
+        print("Sleeping for 10 seconds to allow the `crates.io` index to update...")
+        time.sleep(10)
+        
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()