diff --git a/tools/triage.sh b/tools/triage.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..ce5cb150
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/triage.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,207 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# this should enforce as much of docs/TRIAGING.md as possible, run in top directory of xeps repo
+
+# usage: triage.sh $pr_title [$pr_commit] [$merge_base]
+# the last two will be HEAD and `git merge-base $pr_commit master` by default if not sent in
+
+# for testing you can:
+# git fetch origin +refs/pull/1254/merge
+# git checkout FETCH_HEAD
+# and only send in pr_title
+
+# test cases:
+# multiple xeps changed: git checkout 58cec1b6fb30ccc3b44c9dff34b94f53e958c1ac; ./tools/triage.sh 'XEP-0072, XEP-0096, XEP-0214: fix xmlns in sipub examples' 58cec1b6fb30ccc3b44c9dff34b94f53e958c1ac e4d3f721c2cf9fc7ed42c3428d098b2b3be3c8ed
+# protoxep: git fetch origin +refs/pull/1254/merge; git checkout FETCH_HEAD; ./tools/triage.sh "ProtoXEP: Stream Limits Advertisement"
+# one xep changed: git fetch origin +refs/pull/1249/merge; git checkout FETCH_HEAD; ./tools/triage.sh 'XEP-0444: bla'
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+pr_title="$1"
+shift
+
+pr_commit=""
+if [ $# -ge 1 ]
+then
+    pr_commit="$1"
+    shift
+else
+    pr_commit="HEAD"
+fi
+
+merge_base=""
+if [ $# -ge 1 ]
+then
+    merge_base="$1"
+    shift
+else
+    merge_base="$(git merge-base "$pr_commit" master)"
+fi
+
+xpath() {
+    set -euo pipefail
+    xmllint --nonet --noent --xpath "$2" "$1" --nowarning --dtdvalid xep.dtd
+}
+
+files_changed="$(git --no-pager diff --name-only "$pr_commit" "$merge_base")"
+
+set +e
+protoxep="$(echo "$files_changed" | grep -E '^inbox/[^.]+.xml$')"
+num_protoxeps=$(echo "$protoxep" | grep -v '^$' | wc -l)
+
+xeps_changed="$(echo "$files_changed" | grep -E '^xep-[0-9]{4}.xml$')"
+xep_likes_changed="$(echo "$files_changed" | grep -E '^xep-[^.]+.xml$')"
+num_xeps_changed=$(echo "$xeps_changed" | grep -v '^$' | wc -l)
+set -e
+
+if [ $num_protoxeps -ge 1 ]
+then
+    if [ $num_xeps_changed -ne 0 ]
+    then
+        echo "error: cannot change xeps and add ProtoXEP in 1 PR"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    # we are dealing with a protoxep here
+    echo "tag: protoxep"
+    if [ $num_protoxeps -ne 1 ]
+    then
+        echo "tag: split-pr"
+        echo "error: multiple ProtoXEPs cannot be created in 1 PR"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    expected_title="ProtoXEP: $(xpath "$protoxep" '/xep/header/title/text()')"
+    if [ "$pr_title" != "$expected_title" ]
+    then
+        echo "tag: bad-title"
+        echo "warning: expected title '$expected_title' got title '$pr_title'"
+    fi
+    echo "tag: ready-to-merge"
+    echo "manual: be sure type '$(xpath "$protoxep" '/xep/header/type/text()')' is appropriate for XEP content"
+    exit 0
+fi
+
+# we are *not* dealing with a protoxep here
+if [ "$xeps_changed" != "$xep_likes_changed" ]
+then
+    echo "error: xep files created/changed but named incorrectly: $(echo "$xep_likes_changed" | tr '\n' ' ')"
+    exit 0
+fi
+
+if [ $num_xeps_changed -eq 0 ]
+then
+    # some tag for this? tooling changes?
+    echo "manual: no XEPs changed"
+    exit 0
+fi
+
+if [ $num_xeps_changed -gt 1 ]
+then
+    echo "manual: multiple XEPs changed, split?"
+fi
+
+all_approvers=""
+# a super approver can approve this entire PR, because they are author on all XEPs touched
+super_approvers=""
+for xep in $xeps_changed
+do
+    xep_num="XEP-$(echo "$xep" | grep -Eo '[0-9]{4}')"
+    if ! echo "$pr_title" | grep "$xep_num" &>/dev/null
+    then
+        echo "error: title did not include '$xep_num'"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    
+    status="$(xpath "$xep" '/xep/header/status/text()')"    
+    approvers=""
+    if echo "$status" | grep -E '^(Experimental|Deferred)$' &>/dev/null
+    then
+        # Experimental or Deferred
+        if [ "$status" == 'Deferred' ]
+        then
+            echo "tag: needs-editor-action"
+            echo "manual: move $xep_num status to Experimental before or with merge"
+        fi
+        
+        approvers="$(xpath "$xep" '/xep/header/author/email/text()' | sort -u)"
+    else
+        # *not* Experimental or Deferred
+        approvers="$(xpath "$xep" '/xep/header/approver/text()' 2>/dev/null || echo 'Unknown')"
+    fi
+    
+    echo "info: $xep_num status '$status' needs approvers: '$(echo "$approvers" | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs)'"
+    
+    new_all_approvers="$(echo -e "$all_approvers\n$approvers" | sort -u)"
+    if [ "$all_approvers" != "$new_all_approvers" ]
+    then
+        # this isn't technically a problem if they all have an approver in common, ie super_approvers is non-empty, suppress warning?
+        if [ "$all_approvers" != "" ]
+        then
+            echo "manual: multiple XEPs modified with different approvers, split?"
+            super_approvers="$(comm -12 <(echo "$super_approvers") <(echo "$approvers") | sort -u)"
+        else
+            super_approvers="$new_all_approvers"
+        fi
+        all_approvers="$new_all_approvers"
+    fi
+    
+    # check revision block added and minor version bump
+    versions="$(xpath "$xep" '/xep/header/revision/version/text()')"
+    latest_num_versions="$(echo "$versions" | wc -l)"
+    latest_version="$(echo "$versions" | head -n1)"
+    # this git-cat-file usage assumes no entities etc are ever removed from xep.ent etc, this should be true
+    # but if it ever isn't, then we'll have to check out the entire repo as of $merge_base to do that
+    versions="$(git cat-file -p "$merge_base:./$xep" | xpath - '/xep/header/revision/version/text()')"
+    merge_base_num_versions="$(echo "$versions" | wc -l)"
+    merge_base_version="$(echo "$versions" | head -n1)"
+    if [ $latest_num_versions -gt $merge_base_num_versions ]
+    then
+        if ! echo "$latest_version" | grep -E '^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$' &>/dev/null
+        then
+            echo "error: version is not semver format: '$latest_version'"
+            exit 1
+        fi
+        if [ "$latest_version" == "$merge_base_version" ]
+        then
+            echo "tag: needs-version-block"
+            # todo: anyone have a fancy way to check semver is higher in $latest_version ?
+            # beware we have funky non-semver versions
+            # for xep in xep-*.xml; do xpath "$xep" '/xep/header/revision/version/text()'; done | sort -u > xep_versions.txt
+        fi
+    else
+        echo "tag: needs-version-block"
+    fi
+done
+
+if [ "$super_approvers" != "" ]
+then
+    pr_authors="$(git --no-pager log --format="%aE" "$merge_base".."$pr_commit" | sort -u)"
+    pr_authors_super_approvers="$(comm -12 <(echo "$super_approvers") <(echo "$pr_authors") | sort -u)"
+    if [ "$pr_authors_super_approvers" != "" ]
+    then
+        echo "info: entire PR can be approved by one of the commit authors: '$(echo "$pr_authors" | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs)'"
+    fi
+    echo "info: entire PR can be approved by: '$(echo "$super_approvers" | tr '\n' ' ' | xargs)'"
+fi
+
+if echo "$all_approvers" | grep '^Council$' &>/dev/null
+then
+    echo "tag: needs-council"
+fi
+
+if echo "$all_approvers" | grep '^Board$' &>/dev/null
+then
+    echo "tag: needs-board"
+fi
+
+if echo "$all_approvers" | grep '^Unknown$' &>/dev/null
+then
+    echo "tag: needs-unknown-approver"
+    echo "warning: approver is unknown, perhaps old XEP that needs fixed?"
+fi
+
+if echo "$all_approvers" | grep '@' &>/dev/null
+then
+    echo "tag: needs-author"
+fi
+
+echo "manual: if only editorial changes, may not need approval"