diff --git a/config/update-yaml-files.bash b/config/update-yaml-files.bash
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1b1c3122da6a5e8e2ebb53c93e7f858b0af35974
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/update-yaml-files.bash
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# (re-)generate json configs from yaml files.
+# This command requires yq, which can be installed in ubuntu using `snap install yq`.
+
+for FILENAME in config_scene*.yaml objects.yaml; do
+    yq eval -o=json $FILENAME > "${FILENAME%%.*}.json"
+done
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