diff --git a/tools-image/Dockerfile b/tools-image/Dockerfile
index 07609c4..c311321 100644
--- a/tools-image/Dockerfile
+++ b/tools-image/Dockerfile
@@ -85,6 +85,8 @@ RUN zypper in -y bc qemu-tools
 COPY ./config.yaml /config/manifest.yaml
 COPY ./entrypoint.sh /entrypoint.sh
 COPY ./add-cloud-init.sh /add-cloud-init.sh
+COPY ./os-release.tmpl /os-release.tmpl
+COPY ./update-os-release.sh /update-os-release.sh
 
 # ARM helpers
 COPY ./build-arm-image.sh /build-arm-image.sh
diff --git a/tools-image/os-release.tmpl b/tools-image/os-release.tmpl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e74e5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools-image/os-release.tmpl
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+KAIROS_NAME="${OS_NAME}"
+KAIROS_VERSION="${OS_VERSION}"
+KAIROS_ID="${OS_ID}"
+KAIROS_ID_LIKE="${OS_NAME}"
+KAIROS_VERSION_ID="${OS_VERSION}"
+KAIROS_PRETTY_NAME="${OS_NAME} ${OS_VERSION}"
+KAIROS_BUG_REPORT_URL="${BUG_REPORT_URL}"
+KAIROS_HOME_URL="${HOME_URL}"
+KAIROS_IMAGE_REPO="${OS_REPO}"
+KAIROS_IMAGE_LABEL="${OS_LABEL}"
+KAIROS_GITHUB_REPO="${GITHUB_REPO}"
+KAIROS_VARIANT="${VARIANT}"
+KAIROS_FLAVOR="${FLAVOR}"
diff --git a/tools-image/update-os-release.sh b/tools-image/update-os-release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..8defc8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools-image/update-os-release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# usage:
+# docker run --rm -ti --entrypoint /update-os-release.sh \
+# -v /etc:/workspace \ # mount the directory where your os-release is, this is by default in /etc but you can mount a different dir for testing
+# -e OS_NAME=kairos-core-opensuse-leap \
+# -e OS_VERSION=v2.2.0 \
+# -e OS_ID="kairos" \
+# -e OS_NAME=kairos-core-opensuse-leap \
+# -e BUG_REPORT_URL="https://github.com/kairos-io/kairos/issues" \
+# -e HOME_URL="https://github.com/kairos-io/kairos" \
+# -e OS_REPO="quay.io/kairos/core-opensuse-leap" \
+# -e OS_LABEL="latest" \
+# -e GITHUB_REPO="kairos-io/kairos" \
+# -e VARIANT="core" \
+# -e FLAVOR="opensuse-leap"
+# quay.io/kairos/osbuilder-tools:latest
+
+set -ex
+
+sed -i -n '/KAIROS_/!p' /workspace/os-release
+envsubst >>/workspace/os-release < /os-release.tmpl
+
+cat /workspace/os-release