diff --git a/ci/build/release-prep.sh b/ci/build/release-prep.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..0b09bfebc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/build/release-prep.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Description: This is a script to make the release process easier
+# Run it with `yarn release:prep` and it will do the following:
+# 1. Check that you have a $GITHUB_TOKEN set and hub installed
+# 2. Update the version of code-server (package.json, docs, etc.)
+# 3. Update the code coverage badge in the README
+# 4. Open a draft PR using the release_template.md
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+main() {
+  cd "$(dirname "$0")/../.."
+
+  # Check that $GITHUB_TOKEN is set
+  if [[ -z "${GITHUB_TOKEN}" ]]; then
+    echo "We couldn't find an environment variable under GITHUB_TOKEN."
+    echo "This is needed for our scripts that use hub."
+    echo -e "See docs regarding GITHUB_TOKEN here under 'GitHub OAuth authentication': https://hub.github.com/hub.1.html"
+    exit
+  fi
+
+  # Check that hub is installed
+  if ! command -v hub &>/dev/null; then
+    echo "hub could not be found."
+    echo "We use this with the release-github-draft.sh and release-github-assets.sh scripts."
+    echo -e "See docs here: https://github.com/github/hub#installation"
+    exit
+  fi
+
+  # Check that they have jq installed
+  if ! command -v jq &>/dev/null; then
+    echo "jq could not be found."
+    echo "We use this to parse the package.json and grab the current version of code-server."
+    echo -e "See docs here: https://stedolan.github.io/jq/download/"
+    exit
+  fi
+
+  # Check that they have rg installed
+  if ! command -v rg &>/dev/null; then
+    echo "rg could not be found."
+    echo "We use this when updating files across the codebase."
+    echo -e "See docs here: https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep#installation"
+    exit
+  fi
+
+  # Check that they have sd installed
+  if ! command -v sd &>/dev/null; then
+    echo "sd could not be found."
+    echo "We use this when updating files across the codebase."
+    echo -e "See docs here: https://github.com/chmln/sd#installation"
+    exit
+  fi
+
+  # Check that they have node installed
+  if ! command -v node &>/dev/null; then
+    echo "node could not be found."
+    echo "That's surprising..."
+    echo "We use it in this script for getting the package.json version"
+    echo -e "See docs here: https://nodejs.org/en/download/"
+    exit
+  fi
+
+  # credit to jakwuh for this solution
+  # https://gist.github.com/DarrenN/8c6a5b969481725a4413#gistcomment-1971123
+  CODE_SERVER_CURRENT_VERSION=$(node -pe "require('./package.json').version")
+  # Ask which version we should update to
+  # In the future, we'll automate this and determine the latest version automatically
+  echo "Current version: ${CODE_SERVER_CURRENT_VERSION}"
+  # The $'\n' adds a line break. See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/39581815/3015595
+  read -r -p "What version of code-server do you want to update to?"$'\n' CODE_SERVER_VERSION_TO_UPDATE
+
+  echo -e "Great! We'll prep a PR for updating to $CODE_SERVER_VERSION_TO_UPDATE\n"
+  # I can't tell you why but
+  # when searching with rg, the version needs to in this format: '3\.7\.5'
+  # that's why we have the parameter expansion with the regex
+  rg -g '!yarn.lock' -g '!*.svg' --files-with-matches "${CODE_SERVER_CURRENT_VERSION//\./\\.}" | xargs sd "$CODE_SERVER_CURRENT_VERSION" "$CODE_SERVER_VERSION_TO_UPDATE"
+
+  # Ensure the tests are passing and code coverage is up-to-date
+  echo -e "Running unit tests and updating code coverage...\n"
+  yarn test:unit
+  # Updates the Lines badge in the README
+  yarn badges
+  # Updates the svg to be green for the badge
+  sd "red.svg" "green.svg" ../../README.md
+
+  git add . && git commit -am "chore(release): bump version to $CODE_SERVER_VERSION_TO_UPDATE"
+
+  CURRENT_BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current)
+  # Note: we need to set upstream as well or the gh pr create step will fail
+  # See: https://github.com/cli/cli/issues/575
+  git push -u origin "$CURRENT_BRANCH"
+
+  RELEASE_TEMPLATE_FILE="../../.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE/pull_request_template.md"
+  echo -e "Opening a draft PR on GitHub\n"
+  # To read about these flags, visit the docs: https://cli.github.com/manual/gh_pr_create
+  gh pr create --base main --title "release: $CODE_SERVER_VERSION_TO_UPDATE" --body-file "$RELEASE_TEMPLATE_FILE" --reviewer @cdr/code-server-reviewers --repo cdr/code-server --draft
+
+  # TODO update docs under /ci
+}
+
+main "$@"
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 7e37de49f..aa41eb421 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
     "release:standalone": "./ci/build/build-standalone-release.sh",
     "release:github-draft": "./ci/build/release-github-draft.sh",
     "release:github-assets": "./ci/build/release-github-assets.sh",
+    "release:prep": "./ci/build/release-prep.sh",
     "test:e2e": "./ci/dev/test-e2e.sh",
     "test:standalone-release": "./ci/build/test-standalone-release.sh",
     "test:unit": "./ci/dev/test-unit.sh",