diff --git a/deploy-system.py b/deploy-system.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..17337bdd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deploy-system.py
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# Deploys the system components using docker-compose
+
+import os
+import argparse
+from decouple import config
+from python_on_whales import DockerClient
+
+parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+    description="deploy the complete stack"
+    )
+parser.add_argument("--verbose", action="store_true", help="increase output verbosity")
+parser.add_argument("--quiet", action="store_true", help="don\'t print informational output")
+parser.add_argument("--check-only", action="store_true", help="looks at what\'s already there and checks if it looks good")
+parser.add_argument("--dry-run", action="store_true", help="don\'t do anything, just print the commands that would be executed")
+
+args = parser.parse_args()
+print(args)
+
+verbose = args.verbose
+quiet = args.quiet
+
+with open("cluster-list.txt") as cluster_list_file:
+    clusters = cluster_list_file.read().splitlines()
+
+if verbose:
+    print(f'Cluster components: {clusters}')
+
+# Construct a docker compose command suitable for our purpose
+
+compose_files = []
+for cluster in clusters:
+    compose_file_name = os.path.join("compose", f"docker-compose-{cluster}.yml")
+    compose_files.append(compose_file_name)
+
+print(f"files: {compose_files}")
+
+# See: https://gabrieldemarmiesse.github.io/python-on-whales/sub-commands/compose/
+docker = DockerClient(compose_files=compose_files)
+
+docker.compose.up()
+