diff --git a/electron_app/riot.im/README b/electron_app/riot.im/README
index 09c218740c..8e463c25ec 100644
--- a/electron_app/riot.im/README
+++ b/electron_app/riot.im/README
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 This directory contains the config file for the official riot.im distribution
-of Riot Desktop. You probably do not want to build with this config unless
-you're building the official riot.im distribution, or you'll find your builds
-will replace themselves with the riot.im build.
+of Riot Desktop.
+
+You probably do not want to build with this config unless you're building the
+official riot.im distribution, or you'll find your builds will replace
+themselves with the riot.im build.
diff --git a/riot.im/README b/riot.im/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2186e48dee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/riot.im/README
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This directory contains the config files and deployment scripts for the official
+riot.im distribution of Riot Web at https://riot.im.
+
+You probably do not want to build with this config unless you're building the
+official riot.im distribution, but these files may be useful if you want to
+inspect the configuration used there.
+
+Riot Desktop uses a separate config (see electron_app/riot.im/config.json).
+
+Deployment scripts (such as app/deploy.py) are meant to be run on the web server
+hosting the Riot installation.
diff --git a/riot.im/app/config.json b/riot.im/app/config.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fc67720530
--- /dev/null
+++ b/riot.im/app/config.json
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+{
+    "default_hs_url": "https://matrix.org",
+    "default_is_url": "https://vector.im",
+    "brand": "Riot",
+    "integrations_ui_url": "https://scalar.vector.im/",
+    "integrations_rest_url": "https://scalar.vector.im/api",
+    "integrations_widgets_urls": [
+        "https://scalar-staging.vector.im/api",
+        "https://scalar.vector.im/api",
+        "https://scalar-staging.riot.im/scalar/api"
+    ],
+    "hosting_signup_link": "https://modular.im/?utm_source=riot-web&utm_medium=web",
+    "bug_report_endpoint_url": "https://riot.im/bugreports/submit",
+    "welcomeUserId": "@riot-bot:matrix.org",
+    "piwik": {
+        "url": "https://piwik.riot.im/",
+        "siteId": 1,
+        "policyUrl": "https://matrix.org/docs/guides/riot_im_cookie_policy"
+    },
+    "phasedRollOut": {
+        "feature_lazyloading": {
+            "offset": 1539684000000,
+            "period": 604800000
+        }
+    },
+    "features": {
+        "feature_lazyloading": "enable",
+        "feature_room_breadcrumbs": "labs"
+    },
+    "roomDirectory": {
+        "servers": [
+            "matrix.org"
+        ]
+    },
+    "enable_presence_by_hs_url": {
+        "https://matrix.org": false
+    },
+    "terms_and_conditions_links": [
+        {
+            "url": "https://riot.im/privacy",
+            "text": "Privacy Policy"
+        },
+        {
+            "url": "https://matrix.org/docs/guides/riot_im_cookie_policy",
+            "text": "Cookie Policy"
+        }
+    ]
+}
diff --git a/riot.im/app/deploy.py b/riot.im/app/deploy.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..33aa0af017
--- /dev/null
+++ b/riot.im/app/deploy.py
@@ -0,0 +1,191 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+#
+# download and unpack a riot-web tarball.
+#
+# Allows `bundles` to be extracted to a common directory, and a link to
+# config.json to be added.
+
+from __future__ import print_function
+
+import argparse
+import os
+import os.path
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import tarfile
+import shutil
+import glob
+
+try:
+    # python3
+    from urllib.request import urlretrieve
+except ImportError:
+    # python2
+    from urllib import urlretrieve
+
+class DeployException(Exception):
+    pass
+
+def create_relative_symlink(linkname, target):
+    relpath = os.path.relpath(target, os.path.dirname(linkname))
+    print ("Symlink %s -> %s" % (linkname, relpath))
+    os.symlink(relpath, linkname)
+
+
+def move_bundles(source, dest):
+    """Move the contents of the 'bundles' directory to a common dir
+
+    We check that we will not be overwriting anything before we proceed.
+
+    Args:
+        source (str): path to 'bundles' within the extracted tarball
+        dest (str): target common directory
+    """
+
+    if not os.path.isdir(dest):
+        os.mkdir(dest)
+
+    # build a map from source to destination, checking for non-existence as we go.
+    renames = {}
+    for f in os.listdir(source):
+        dst = os.path.join(dest, f)
+        if os.path.exists(dst):
+            print (
+                "Skipping bundle. The bundle includes '%s' which we have previously deployed."
+                % f
+            )
+        else:
+            renames[os.path.join(source, f)] = dst
+
+    for (src, dst) in renames.iteritems():
+        print ("Move %s -> %s" % (src, dst))
+        os.rename(src, dst)
+
+class Deployer:
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.packages_path = "."
+        self.bundles_path = None
+        self.should_clean = False
+        # filename -> symlink path e.g 'config.localhost.json' => '../localhost/config.json'
+        self.symlink_paths = {}
+        self.verify_signature = True
+
+    def deploy(self, tarball, extract_path):
+        """Download a tarball if necessary, and unpack it
+
+        Returns:
+            (str) the path to the unpacked deployment
+        """
+        print("Deploying %s to %s" % (tarball, extract_path))
+
+        name_str = os.path.basename(tarball).replace(".tar.gz", "")
+        extracted_dir = os.path.join(extract_path, name_str)
+        if os.path.exists(extracted_dir):
+            raise DeployException('Cannot unpack %s: %s already exists' % (
+                tarball, extracted_dir))
+
+        downloaded = False
+        if tarball.startswith("http://") or tarball.startswith("https://"):
+            tarball = self.download_and_verify(tarball)
+            print("Downloaded file: %s" % tarball)
+            downloaded = True
+
+        try:
+            with tarfile.open(tarball) as tar:
+                tar.extractall(extract_path)
+        finally:
+            if self.should_clean and downloaded:
+                os.remove(tarball)
+
+        print ("Extracted into: %s" % extracted_dir)
+
+        if self.symlink_paths:
+            for link_path, file_path in self.symlink_paths.iteritems():
+                create_relative_symlink(
+                    target=file_path,
+                    linkname=os.path.join(extracted_dir, link_path)
+                )
+
+        if self.bundles_path:
+            extracted_bundles = os.path.join(extracted_dir, 'bundles')
+            move_bundles(source=extracted_bundles, dest=self.bundles_path)
+
+            # replace the extracted_bundles dir (which may not be empty if some
+            # bundles were skipped) with a symlink to the common dir.
+            shutil.rmtree(extracted_bundles)
+            create_relative_symlink(
+                target=self.bundles_path,
+                linkname=extracted_bundles,
+            )
+        return extracted_dir
+
+    def download_and_verify(self, url):
+        tarball = self.download_file(url)
+
+        if self.verify_signature:
+            sigfile = self.download_file(url + ".asc")
+            subprocess.check_call(["gpg", "--verify", sigfile, tarball])
+
+        return tarball
+
+    def download_file(self, url):
+        if not os.path.isdir(self.packages_path):
+            os.mkdir(self.packages_path)
+        local_filename = os.path.join(self.packages_path,
+                                      url.split('/')[-1])
+        sys.stdout.write("Downloading %s -> %s..." % (url, local_filename))
+        sys.stdout.flush()
+        urlretrieve(url, local_filename)
+        print ("Done")
+        return local_filename
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser("Deploy a Riot build on a web server.")
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "-p", "--packages-dir", default="./packages", help=(
+            "The directory to download the tarball into. (Default: '%(default)s')"
+        )
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "-e", "--extract-path", default="./deploys", help=(
+            "The location to extract .tar.gz files to. (Default: '%(default)s')"
+        )
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "-b", "--bundles-dir", nargs='?', default="./bundles", help=(
+            "A directory to move the contents of the 'bundles' directory to. A \
+            symlink to the bundles directory will also be written inside the \
+            extracted tarball. Example: './bundles'. \
+            (Default: '%(default)s')"
+        )
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "-c", "--clean", action="store_true", default=False, help=(
+            "Remove .tar.gz files after they have been downloaded and extracted. \
+            (Default: %(default)s)"
+        )
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--include", nargs='*', default=['./config*.json'], help=(
+            "Symlink these files into the root of the deployed tarball. \
+             Useful for config files and home pages. Supports glob syntax. \
+             (Default: '%(default)s')"
+        )
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "tarball", help=(
+            "filename of tarball, or URL to download."
+        ),
+    )
+
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    deployer = Deployer()
+    deployer.packages_path = args.packages_dir
+    deployer.bundles_path = args.bundles_dir
+    deployer.should_clean = args.clean
+
+    for include in args.include:
+        deployer.symlink_paths.update({ os.path.basename(pth): pth for pth in glob.iglob(include) })
+
+    deployer.deploy(args.tarball, args.extract_path)
diff --git a/riot.im/develop/config.json b/riot.im/develop/config.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b687235c3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/riot.im/develop/config.json
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+{
+    "default_hs_url": "https://matrix.org",
+    "default_is_url": "https://vector.im",
+    "brand": "Riot",
+    "integrations_ui_url": "https://scalar-staging.vector.im/",
+    "integrations_rest_url": "https://scalar-staging.vector.im/api",
+    "integrations_widgets_urls": [
+        "https://scalar-staging.riot.im/scalar/api",
+        "https://scalar-staging.vector.im/api",
+        "https://scalar.vector.im/api"
+    ],
+    "hosting_signup_link": "https://modular.im/?utm_source=riot-web&utm_medium=web",
+    "bug_report_endpoint_url": "https://riot.im/bugreports/submit",
+    "features": {
+        "feature_rich_quoting": "labs",
+        "feature_pinning": "labs",
+        "feature_presence_management": "labs",
+        "feature_sticker_messages": "labs",
+        "feature_jitsi": "labs",
+        "feature_tag_panel": "enable",
+        "feature_keybackup": "labs",
+        "feature_custom_status": "labs",
+        "feature_custom_tags": "labs",
+        "feature_lazyloading": "enable",
+        "feature_tabbed_settings": "labs",
+        "feature_sas": "labs",
+        "feature_room_breadcrumbs": "labs",
+        "feature_state_counters": "labs",
+        "feature_reactions": "enable",
+        "feature_message_editing": "enable"
+    },
+    "welcomeUserId": "@riot-bot:matrix.org",
+    "piwik": {
+        "url": "https://piwik.riot.im/",
+        "siteId": 1,
+        "policyUrl": "https://matrix.org/docs/guides/riot_im_cookie_policy"
+    },
+    "roomDirectory": {
+        "servers": [
+            "matrix.org"
+        ]
+    },
+    "enable_presence_by_hs_url": {
+        "https://matrix.org": false
+    },
+    "terms_and_conditions_links": [
+        {
+            "url": "https://riot.im/privacy",
+            "text": "Privacy Policy"
+        },
+        {
+            "url": "https://matrix.org/docs/guides/riot_im_cookie_policy",
+            "text": "Cookie Policy"
+        }
+    ]
+}