diff --git a/cmd/review/README.md b/cmd/review/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95b24d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/review/README.md
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+THIS COMMAND is for reviewing applications made to tilde.town. it's for admins to run.
+
+signups land in `/town/signups` as JSON files. This tool iterates over them and
+lets an admin take one of a few actions:
+
+- skip
+- approve
+- reject
+- notate (leave a note for other admins)
+- jump to random signup
+
+some other requirements in no particular order:
+
+- JSON files should be locked when being looked at
+- notation modifies the JSON in place
+- approved signups go to `/town/signups/approved`
+- rejected signups go to `/town/signups/rejected`
+
+I'm not 100% sure yet what approval is going to look like; I want to switch to
+a system where people are emailed about their acceptance and given a code they
+can exchange for an ssh form that lets them pick a username and add a pubkey.
+
+so for now i'm just going to move the files into `/town/signups/approved` while
+i think about that.
+
diff --git a/cmd/review/main.go b/cmd/review/main.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..265c4a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/review/main.go
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+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+)
+
+func _main() error {
+	// TODO tview
+	return nil
+}
+
+func main() {
+	err := _main()
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, err)
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+}