diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-image.yml b/.github/workflows/build-image.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa95490
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-image.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# FIXME: currently just builds it, eventually, should use qemu to try to run
+# the image (potentially as a separate action)
+name: build-prawnos-image
+
+on: [push]
+jobs:
+  build:
+    name: build
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: checkout project
+        uses: actions/checkout@master
+      - name: build image
+        run: docker run --mount type=bind,source=$PWD,target=/PrawnOS
+             --privileged=true -v/dev:/dev debian:buster
+             /bin/bash /PrawnOS/tests/build-image.sh "$GITHUB_SHA"
+      - name: publish image
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+        with:
+          name: image
+          path: "PrawnOS-Shiba-c201-git-*.img"
diff --git a/tests/build-image.sh b/tests/build-image.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..87828bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/build-image.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# This file is part of PrawnOS (http://www.prawnos.com)
+# Copyright (c) 2020 Austin English <austinenglish@gmail.com>
+
+# PrawnOS is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2
+# as published by the Free Software Foundation.
+
+# PrawnOS is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with PrawnOS.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+set -e
+set -x
+
+GITHUB_SHA="$1"
+
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
+
+# Get dependencies listed in README.md:
+apt-get update
+apt-get -y install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests bc binfmt-support bison cgpt cmake debootstrap device-tree-compiler flex g++ gawk gcc gcc-arm-none-eabi git libc-dev libncurses-dev libssl-dev lzip make parted patch qemu-user-static texinfo u-boot-tools vboot-kernel-utils wget
+
+# And install stuff that is missing from the Debian/buster container:
+apt-get -y install --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests bzip2 ca-certificates cpio file gpg gpg-agent kmod udev
+
+# Note: there's an error for /proc/modules, but at least building the image works fine:
+# libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:1657 kmod_module_new_from_loaded: could not open /proc/modules: No such file or directory
+make image
+
+# rename the image to include git sha:
+mv PrawnOS-Shiba-c201.img "PrawnOS-Shiba-c201-git-${GITHUB_SHA}.img"