diff --git a/hydra/xtasks/deploy.sh b/hydra/xtasks/deploy.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..e161ea6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hydra/xtasks/deploy.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env sh
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(realpath $(dirname $0))"
+PROJ_ROOT="${SCRIPT_DIR}/.."
+
+# create a deployment of simple_hydra
+nixops create ${PROJ_ROOT}/infra/{vbox,simple_hydra}.nix -d simple_hydra
+
+nixops info -d simple_hydra
+