I have a Python background, and this proposal reminded me of pbr, a tool that I happened to enjoy in the last year: http://docs.openstack.org/developer/pbr/ pasted here are its features: Version: Manage version number based on git revisions and tags AUTHORS: Generate AUTHORS file from git log ChangeLog: Generate ChangeLog from git log Sphinx Autodoc: Generate autodoc stub files for your whole module Requirements: Store your dependencies in a pip requirements file long_description: Use your README file as a long_description Smart find_packages: Smartly find packages under your root package the dependencies are probably already handled sufficiently by cabal alone, but it might be interesting to handle all these things together. (I'm not big on depending on git, but pragmatically support for other vcs might be added if there's demand and contributions for it)