diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 4cfc0f4..c7571c1 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 *.swp
 */*.swp
 .vscode/
+__pycache__/
 releases/*
 testing/stubs/local.*
 build
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 8255c46..748dc6a 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -38,6 +38,15 @@ extlinks = {
 
 # https://documatt.com/sphinx-reredirects/usage.html
 # the target should be relative to ensure it works on RTD
+# this is a fallback in case the redirects in the RTD settings are lost or no longer work
+# RTD redirects should be:
+# - Type: page redirect
+# - From URL: /old/absolute/path/to/page.html
+# - To URL: /new/absolute/path/to/page.html
+# - HTTP status code: 301 Permanent
+# - Force redirect: yes
+# - Enabled: yes
+# use manage-redirects.py to copy the config here to RTD
 redirects = {
     # source : target
     "guides/binary-releases": "../../general/binary-releases.html",
@@ -90,5 +99,9 @@ man_pages = [
     ('man/zfsbootmenu.7', 'zfsbootmenu', 'System Integration', man_author, '7'),
 ]
 
-if tags.has('manpages'):
-    exclude_patterns += ['guides/**']
+try:
+    # tags is set by sphinx when interpreting the config
+    if tags.has('manpages'):
+        exclude_patterns += ['guides/**']
+except NameError:
+    ...
diff --git a/docs/manage-redirects.py b/docs/manage-redirects.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..318066d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/manage-redirects.py
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# Usage: RTD_TOKEN="..." python3 manage-redirects.py
+# simple IaC-ish script to set redirects in readthedocs's config
+# requires an api token from https://readthedocs.org/accounts/tokens/
+
+from os import environ
+
+import requests
+
+from conf import redirects
+
+
+SLUG = "zfsbootmenu"
+
+URL = f"https://readthedocs.org/api/v3/projects/{SLUG}/redirects/"
+HEADERS = {"Authorization": f"Token {environ.get('RTD_TOKEN')}"}
+
+
+def transform_redirects(redir: dict[str, str]) -> dict[str, str]:
+    """transform the redirect dictionary from the reredirects format to what rtd.org will want"""
+    return { k+".html": "/"+v.lstrip("../") for k, v in redir.items() }
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    # get the existing redirects
+    existing = []
+    req_url = URL
+    while req_url is not None:
+        resp = requests.get(req_url, headers=HEADERS)
+        resp.raise_for_status()
+        existing += resp.json().get("results", [])
+        req_url = resp.json().get("next")
+
+    # and delete them all
+    for redir in existing:
+        if (rid := redir.get('pk')) is not None:
+            print(f"=> Deleting redirect {rid}: {redir.get('from_url')} -> {redir.get('to_url')}")
+            resp = requests.delete(URL+f"{rid}/", headers=HEADERS)
+            resp.raise_for_status()
+
+    # replace them with the redirects defined in conf.py
+    for old, new in transform_redirects(redirects).items():
+        print(f"=> Creating redirect: {old} -> {new}")
+        resp = requests.post(URL, headers=HEADERS, data={
+            "from_url": old, "to_url": new, "type": "page", "http_status": 301, "force": True, "enabled": True,
+        })
+        resp.raise_for_status()