diff --git a/doc/manual/installation.xml b/doc/manual/installation.xml
index a1c410d5b..4d1c6b2ae 100644
--- a/doc/manual/installation.xml
+++ b/doc/manual/installation.xml
@@ -163,15 +163,16 @@ hydra-init</screen>
     </para>
 
     <para>
-      To add a user <emphasis>root</emphasis> with
-      <emphasis>admin</emphasis> privileges, execute:
-      <screen>
-echo "INSERT INTO Users(userName, emailAddress, password) VALUES ('root', 'some@email.adress.com', '$(echo -n foobar | sha1sum | cut -c1-40)');" | psql hydra
-echo "INSERT INTO UserRoles(userName, role) values('root', 'admin');" | psql hydra</screen>
+      To create projects, you need to create a user with
+      <emphasis>admin</emphasis> privileges.  This can be done using
+      the command <command>hydra-create-user</command>:
 
-      For SQLite the same commands can be used, with <command>psql
-      hydra</command> replaced by <command>sqlite3
-      /path/to/hydra.sqlite</command>.
+<screen>
+$ hydra-create-user alice --full-name 'Alice Q. User' \
+    --email-address 'alice@example.org' --password foobar --role admin
+</screen>
+
+      Additional users can be created through the web interface.
     </para>
 
   </section>
diff --git a/src/script/Makefile.am b/src/script/Makefile.am
index 508e5fe1f..c05c9a125 100644
--- a/src/script/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/script/Makefile.am
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ distributable_scripts =				\
   hydra-server					\
   hydra-update-gc-roots				\
   hydra-s3-backup-collect-garbage		\
+  hydra-create-user				\
   nix-prefetch-git				\
   nix-prefetch-bzr				\
   nix-prefetch-hg
diff --git a/src/script/hydra-create-user b/src/script/hydra-create-user
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..1fcf47284
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/script/hydra-create-user
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+#! /var/run/current-system/sw/bin/perl -w
+
+use strict;
+use Hydra::Schema;
+use Hydra::Helper::Nix;
+use Hydra::Model::DB;
+use Getopt::Long qw(:config gnu_getopt);
+use Digest::SHA1 qw(sha1_hex);
+
+sub showHelp {
+    print <<EOF;
+Usage: $0 NAME
+  [--rename-from NAME]
+  [--type hydra|persona]
+  [--full-name FULLNAME]
+  [--email-address EMAIL-ADDRESS]
+  [--password PASSWORD]
+  [--wipe-roles]
+  [--role ROLE]...
+
+Create a new Hydra user account, or update or an existing one.  The
+--role flag can be given multiple times.  If the account already
+exists, roles are added to the existing roles unless --wipe-roles is
+specified.  If --rename-from is given, the specified account is
+renamed.
+
+Example:
+  \$ hydra-create-user alice --password foobar --role admin
+EOF
+    exit 0;
+}
+
+my ($renameFrom, $type, $fullName, $emailAddress, $password);
+my $wipeRoles = 0;
+my @roles;
+
+GetOptions("rename-from=s" => \$renameFrom,
+           "type=s" => \$type,
+           "full-name=s" => \$fullName,
+           "email-address=s" => \$emailAddress,
+           "password=s" => \$password,
+           "wipe-roles" => \$wipeRoles,
+           "role=s" => \@roles,
+           "help" => sub { showHelp() }
+    ) or exit 1;
+
+die "$0: one user name required\n" if scalar @ARGV != 1;
+my $userName = $ARGV[0];
+
+die "$0: type must be `hydra' or `persona'\n"
+    if defined $type && $type ne "hydra" && $type ne "persona";
+
+my $db = Hydra::Model::DB->new();
+
+txn_do($db, sub {
+    my $user = $db->resultset('Users')->find({ username => $renameFrom // $userName });
+    if ($renameFrom) {
+        die "$0: user `$renameFrom' does not exist\n" unless $user;
+        $user->update({ username => $userName });
+    } elsif ($user) {
+        print STDERR "updating existing user `$userName'\n";
+    } else {
+        print STDERR "creating new user `$userName'\n";
+        $user = $db->resultset('Users')->create(
+            { username => $userName, type => "hydra", emailaddress => "", password => "!" });
+    }
+
+    die "$0: Persona user names must be email addresses\n"
+        if $user->type eq "persona" && $userName !~ /\@/;
+
+    $user->update({ type => $type }) if defined $type;
+
+    $user->update({ fullname => $fullName eq "" ? undef : $fullName }) if defined $fullName;
+
+    if ($user->type eq "persona") {
+        die "$0: Persona accounts do not have an explicitly set email address.\n"
+            if defined $emailAddress;
+        die "$0: Persona accounts do not have a password.\n"
+            if defined $password;
+        $user->update({ emailaddress => $userName, password => "!" });
+    } else {
+        $user->update({ emailaddress => $emailAddress }) if defined $emailAddress;
+        $user->update({ password => sha1_hex($password) }) if defined $password;
+    }
+
+    $user->userroles->delete if $wipeRoles;
+    $user->userroles->update_or_create({ role => $_ }) foreach @roles;
+});