diff --git a/cosmos/generate_keys.sh b/cosmos/generate_keys.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d6f6b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cosmos/generate_keys.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+# Example:
+#   /bin/bash ./generate_keys.sh
+#
+# Dependencies:
+#   brew install jq
+#
+# Description:
+#   Opens the Cosmos JSON file and extracts the private/public key and places them into actual files
+
+root=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+config="$root/master/cosmos-config.json"
+
+# check the jq dependency is available
+type jq >/dev/null 2>&1 || { printf >&2 "\nThe jq dependency is missing. Please first run 'brew install jq'\n"; exit 1; }
+
+if [ ! -f "$config" ]; then
+  printf "\nSorry, this script needs access to $config - please run 'get_config.sh' script first\n"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+function strip_newlines() {
+  local config=$1
+  local key=$2
+  cat $config | jq --raw-output "$key" | sed 's/$/\\n/' | tr -d '\n'
+}
+
+private=$(strip_newlines $config ".secure_configuration.git_ssh_private_key")
+public=$(cat $config | jq --raw-output ".secure_configuration.git_ssh_public_key")
+backup=$(cat $config | jq --raw-output ".secure_configuration.backup_encryption_key_20150608")
+
+# we need to remove a stray \n at the end of the ouput in each variable; hence ${VAR::-2}
+echo "${private::-2}" > $root/master/private.key
+echo $public > $root/master/public.key
+echo $backup > $root/master/backup_encryption_key
+
+printf "\nThe private, public and backup key files have been successfully generated:\n"