diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index d87d4be..164d39f 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -15,3 +15,5 @@ spec/reports
 test/tmp
 test/version_tmp
 tmp
+packaging/traveling-ruby*
+parity-*
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5694b00..385e453 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -22,14 +22,31 @@ and the other programs can be installed with Homebrew:
 Install
 -------
 
+OSX:
+
+    brew tap thoughtbot/formulae
+    brew install parity
+
+On other systems you can:
+
+1. Download the package for your system from the [releases
+page][releases]
+2. Extract the tarball and place it so that `/bin` is in your `PATH`
+
+Alternatively, you can do the following on all systems (requires a ruby
+installation):
+
     gem install parity
 
-This installs three shell commands:
+All these methods install the following three shell commands:
 
     development
     staging
     production
 
+
+[releases]: https://github.com/croaky/parity/releases
+
 Usage
 -----
 
@@ -130,6 +147,11 @@ Contributing
 
 Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for details.
 
+Releasing
+---------
+
+See guidelines in RELEASING.md for details
+
 Credits
 -------
 
diff --git a/RELEASING.md b/RELEASING.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c38753e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/RELEASING.md
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# Releasing
+
+Parity uses a set of `rake` tasks to create packages and bundles [traveling
+ruby][traveling_ruby] to simplify the dependency on Ruby.
+
+Generating packages:
+-------------------
+
+Packages can be generated for the following systems:
+
+* OSX `rake package:osx`
+* Linux x86 `rake package:linux:x86`
+* Linux x86_64 `rake package:linux:x86_64`
+
+You can generate all packages with `rake package:all`
+
+[traveling_ruby]: https://github.com/phusion/traveling-ruby
+
+The packages generated are tarballs of the following directory structure:
+
+    parity-package
+    ├── bin # shims
+    └── lib
+        ├── app # parity's bin and lib directories
+        └── ruby # traveling ruby for target system
+
+Releasing a new version
+----------------------
+
+1. Update the version in `parity/version.rb`
+2. Create a new tag based on the version number
+3. Generate packages
+4. Create a [release] for the latest tag and attach the packages
+5. Update the [homebrew formula] to point to the latest OSX package
+
+[homebrew formula]:
+https://github.com/thoughtbot/homebrew-formulae/blob/master/Formula/parity.rb
+[release]: https://github.com/croaky/parity/releases
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index c09fb9b..1913756 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -1,6 +1,111 @@
 require 'bundler/gem_tasks'
 require 'rspec/core/rake_task'
+require File.expand_path("../lib/parity/version", __FILE__)
 
 RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new('spec')
 
 task default: :spec
+
+PROJECT_NAME = "parity"
+TRAVELING_RUBY_VERSION = "20141215-2.1.5"
+TRAVELING_RUBY_HOST = "http://d6r77u77i8pq3.cloudfront.net/releases"
+RUBY_BASENAME = "traveling-ruby-#{TRAVELING_RUBY_VERSION}"
+
+namespace :package do
+  desc "Generate parity #{Parity::VERSION} packages for OSX, Linux x86 and Linux x86_64"
+  task all: ["linux:x86", "linux:x86_64", "osx"]
+
+  namespace :linux do
+    desc "Generate parity #{Parity::VERSION} package for Linux x86"
+    task x86: "packaging/#{RUBY_BASENAME}-linux-x86.tar.gz" do
+      clean_up("linux-x86")
+      create_package("linux-x86")
+    end
+
+    desc "Generate parity #{Parity::VERSION} package for Linux x86_64"
+    task x86_64: "packaging/#{RUBY_BASENAME}-linux-x86_64.tar.gz" do
+      clean_up("linux-x86_64")
+      create_package("linux-x86_64")
+    end
+  end
+
+  desc "Generate parity #{Parity::VERSION} package for OSX"
+  task osx: "packaging/#{RUBY_BASENAME}-osx.tar.gz" do
+    clean_up("osx")
+    create_package("osx")
+  end
+
+  desc "Remove the files generated by packaging"
+  task :cleanup do
+    clean_up("osx")
+    clean_up("linux-x86")
+    clean_up("linux-x86_64")
+  end
+end
+
+file "packaging/#{RUBY_BASENAME}-osx.tar.gz" do
+  sh "cd packaging && curl -L -O --fail #{TRAVELING_RUBY_HOST}/#{ruby_for("osx")}"
+end
+
+file "packaging/#{RUBY_BASENAME}-linux-x86.tar.gz" do
+  sh "cd packaging && curl -L -O --fail #{TRAVELING_RUBY_HOST}/#{ruby_for("linux-x86")}"
+end
+
+file "packaging/#{RUBY_BASENAME}-linux-x86_64.tar.gz" do
+  sh "cd packaging && curl -L -O --fail #{TRAVELING_RUBY_HOST}/#{ruby_for("linux-x86_64")}"
+end
+
+def create_package(target)
+  package_dir = "#{PROJECT_NAME}-#{Parity::VERSION}-#{target}"
+
+  copy_lib(package_dir)
+  copy_binaries(package_dir)
+  copy_shims(package_dir)
+  extract_ruby(package_dir, target)
+  archive_package(package_dir)
+end
+
+def clean_up(target)
+  package_name = "#{PROJECT_NAME}-#{Parity::VERSION}-#{target}"
+  rm_rf package_name
+  rm_f "#{package_name}.tar.gz"
+end
+
+def ruby_for(target)
+  "#{RUBY_BASENAME}-#{target}.tar.gz"
+end
+
+def copy_lib(package_dir)
+  app_dir = "#{package_dir}/lib/app"
+  mkdir_p app_dir
+
+  cp_r "lib", app_dir
+  cp "README.md", app_dir
+end
+
+def copy_binaries(package_dir)
+  bin_path = "#{package_dir}/lib/app/bin"
+  mkdir_p bin_path
+
+  cp "bin/development", bin_path
+  cp "bin/staging", bin_path
+  cp "bin/production", bin_path
+end
+
+def copy_shims(package_dir)
+  shim_dir = "#{package_dir}/bin"
+  mkdir shim_dir
+  cp "packaging/development_shim.sh", "#{shim_dir}/development"
+  cp "packaging/staging_shim.sh", "#{shim_dir}/staging"
+  cp "packaging/production_shim.sh", "#{shim_dir}/production"
+end
+
+def extract_ruby(package_dir, target)
+  ruby_dir = "#{package_dir}/lib/ruby"
+  mkdir_p ruby_dir
+  sh "tar -xzf packaging/#{ruby_for(target)} -C #{ruby_dir}"
+end
+
+def archive_package(package_dir)
+  sh "tar -czf #{package_dir}.tar.gz #{package_dir}"
+end
diff --git a/lib/parity.rb b/lib/parity.rb
index 6bdfc19..f42f4b9 100644
--- a/lib/parity.rb
+++ b/lib/parity.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+$LOAD_PATH << File.expand_path("..", __FILE__)
+
+require "parity/version"
 require "parity/configuration"
 require "parity/environment"
 require "parity/usage"
diff --git a/lib/parity/version.rb b/lib/parity/version.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da51204
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/parity/version.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+module Parity
+  VERSION = "0.4.1"
+end
diff --git a/packaging/development_shim.sh b/packaging/development_shim.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..da7d22c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/development_shim.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+
+REALPATH=$(readlink $0 || $0)
+RELATIVE_DIR=$(dirname $REALPATH)
+SELF_DIR=$(cd $(dirname $0) && cd $RELATIVE_DIR && pwd)
+
+exec "$SELF_DIR/../lib/ruby/bin/ruby" "$SELF_DIR/../lib/app/bin/development"
diff --git a/packaging/production_shim.sh b/packaging/production_shim.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..38c522d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/production_shim.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+
+REALPATH=$(readlink $0 || $0)
+RELATIVE_DIR=$(dirname $REALPATH)
+SELF_DIR=$(cd $(dirname $0) && cd $RELATIVE_DIR && pwd)
+
+exec "$SELF_DIR/../lib/ruby/bin/ruby" "$SELF_DIR/../lib/app/bin/production"
diff --git a/packaging/staging_shim.sh b/packaging/staging_shim.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..bf959d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/staging_shim.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+
+REALPATH=$(readlink $0 || $0)
+RELATIVE_DIR=$(dirname $REALPATH)
+SELF_DIR=$(cd $(dirname $0) && cd $RELATIVE_DIR && pwd)
+
+exec "$SELF_DIR/../lib/ruby/bin/ruby" "$SELF_DIR/../lib/app/bin/staging"
diff --git a/parity.gemspec b/parity.gemspec
index fd30bf0..e9b1c40 100644
--- a/parity.gemspec
+++ b/parity.gemspec
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+require File.expand_path("../lib/parity/version", __FILE__)
+
 Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.authors = ["Dan Croak"]
 
@@ -14,5 +16,5 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.name = "parity"
   spec.require_paths = ["lib"]
   spec.summary = "Shell commands for development, staging, and production parity."
-  spec.version = "0.4.1"
+  spec.version = Parity::VERSION
 end