diff --git a/create-branches.sh b/create-branches.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..098e307
--- /dev/null
+++ b/create-branches.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+set -vxe
+
+if command -v brew &>/dev/null; then
+  # use gsed if installed
+  PATH="$(brew --prefix)/opt/gnu-sed/libexec/gnubin:${PATH}"
+fi
+
+branches=(
+  pre-5.0
+  pre-4.5
+  pre-2.9.5
+  pre-2.5.3
+  pre-2.3.2
+  pre-2.2.99
+  pre-2.1.5
+)
+
+git clone https://github.com/rasa/nanorc
+
+cd nanorc
+
+git remote remove upstream || true
+git remote add upstream https://github.com/scopatz/nanorc
+
+git fetch upstream
+
+# https://stackoverflow.com/a/42332860/1432614
+
+# ensures current branch is master
+git checkout master
+
+# pulls all new commits made to upstream/master
+git pull upstream master
+
+# this will delete all your local changes to master
+git reset --hard upstream/master
+
+for branch in "${branches[@]}"; do
+  git branch -D "${branch}" || true
+done
+
+# sed will convert symlinks to regular files, so ignore them
+mapfile -t nanos <<<"$(find . -not -type l -name '*.nanorc' | sort)"
+
+git checkout -b pre-5.0
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/\bcolor\s+purple\b/color brightmagenta/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-5.0: change 'brightred' to 'brightmagenta'"
+
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/\bcolor\s+latte\b/color brightred/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-5.0: change 'latte' to 'brightred'"
+
+git checkout -b pre-4.5
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/^(\s*tabgives\b)/# \1/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-4.5: comment out 'tabgives'"
+
+git checkout -b pre-2.9.5
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/color\s+normal\b/color white/' "${nanos[@]}"
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/color\s+,normal\b/color ,white/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-2.9.5: change 'normal' to 'white'"
+
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/color\s+brightnormal\b/color brightwhite/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-2.9.5: change 'brightnormal' to 'brightwhite'"
+
+git checkout -b pre-2.5.3
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/^(\s*comment\b)/# \1/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-2.5.3: comment out 'comment'"
+
+git checkout -b pre-2.3.2
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/^(\s*linter\b)/# \1/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-2.3.2: comment out 'linter'"
+
+git checkout -b pre-2.2.99
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/^(\s*magic\b)/# \1/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-2.2.99: comment out 'magic'"
+
+git checkout -b pre-2.1.5
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/^(\s*header\b)/# \1/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-2.1.5: comment out 'header'"
+
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/^(\s*syntax\s+)([^"\s]+)(\s.*)/\1"\2"\3/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-2.1.5: add quotes around syntax names"
+
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/^(\s*icolor\s+cyan\s+.*Add-AppPackage)/# \1/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-2.1.5: comment out string causing out-of-memory"
+
+# +++ b/Rnw.nanorc
+# -color blue "([a-zA-Z0-9_\-$\.]*)\("
+# +color blue "([a-zA-Z0-9_$\.-]*)\("
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/a-zA-Z0-9_\\-\$\\\./a-zA-Z0-9_$\\.-/' "${nanos[@]}"
+
+# +++ b/jade.nanorc
+# +++ b/pug.nanorc
+# -icolor brightgreen "https?:\/\/(www\.)?[a-zA-Z0-9@%._\+~#=]{2,256}\.[a-z]{2,6}\b([-a-zA-Z0-9@:%_\+.~#?&//=]*)" "_blank"
+# +icolor brightgreen "https?:\/\/(www\.)?[a-zA-Z0-9@%._\+~#=]+\.[a-z]+\b([-a-zA-Z0-9@:%_\+.~#?&//=]*)" "_blank"
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/]\{2,256\}\\/]+\\/' "${nanos[@]}"
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/]\{2,6\}\\b/]+\\b/' "${nanos[@]}"
+
+# +++ b/toml.nanorc
+# -color ,red "^[[:space:]]*\[\..*?\]"
+# +color ,red "^[[:space:]]*\[\..*"
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/(color ,red .*\.\.\*)\?\\]/\1/' "${nanos[@]}"
+
+# +++ b/x11basic.nanorc
+# -icolor brightwhite "\<[A-Z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*(|\$|\%|\&|\||\(\))\>"
+# +icolor brightwhite "\<[A-Z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*(\$|\%|\&|\||\(\))\>"
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/(icolor\s+brightwhite.*\*\()\|/\1/' "${nanos[@]}"
+
+# +++ b/yaml.nanorc
+# -color red "(^|\s+).*+\s*:(\s|$)"
+# +color red "(^|\s+).*\+\s*:(\s|$)"
+sed -E -i.bak -e 's/(color\s+red\s+.*\)\.\*)\+/\1\\+/' "${nanos[@]}"
+git commit -am "fix: pre-2.1.5: fix bad regexes"
+
+git checkout master
+
+# take care, this will delete all your changes on your forked master
+git push --force origin master
+
+for branch in "${branches[@]}"; do
+  git checkout "${branch}"
+  git push --force -u origin "${branch}"
+done
+
+git checkout master