diff --git a/app/controllers/admin/themes_controller.rb b/app/controllers/admin/themes_controller.rb
index df533989c5c..77fb2009d1c 100644
--- a/app/controllers/admin/themes_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/admin/themes_controller.rb
@@ -82,6 +82,13 @@ class Admin::ThemesController < Admin::AdminController
       rescue RuntimeError
         render_json_error I18n.t('themes.error_importing')
       end
+    elsif params[:bundle]
+      begin
+        @theme = RemoteTheme.update_tgz_theme(params[:bundle].path, user: current_user)
+        render json: @theme, status: :created
+      rescue RuntimeError
+        render_json_error I18n.t('themes.error_importing')
+      end
     else
       render json: @theme.errors, status: :unprocessable_entity
     end
diff --git a/app/models/remote_theme.rb b/app/models/remote_theme.rb
index d2bad885253..664b23ff99a 100644
--- a/app/models/remote_theme.rb
+++ b/app/models/remote_theme.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-require_dependency 'git_importer'
+require_dependency 'theme_store/git_importer'
+require_dependency 'theme_store/tgz_importer'
 require_dependency 'upload_creator'
 
 class RemoteTheme < ActiveRecord::Base
@@ -7,8 +8,32 @@ class RemoteTheme < ActiveRecord::Base
 
   has_one :theme
 
+  def self.update_tgz_theme(filename, user: Discourse.system_user)
+    importer = ThemeStore::TgzImporter.new(filename)
+    importer.import!
+
+    theme_info = JSON.parse(importer["about.json"])
+
+    theme = Theme.find_by(name: theme_info["name"])
+    theme ||= Theme.new(user_id: user&.id || -1, name: theme_info["name"])
+
+    remote_theme = new
+    remote_theme.theme = theme
+    remote_theme.remote_url = ""
+    remote_theme.update_from_remote(importer, skip_update: true)
+
+    theme.save!
+    theme
+  ensure
+    begin
+      importer.cleanup!
+    rescue => e
+      Rails.logger.warn("Failed cleanup remote path #{e}")
+    end
+  end
+
   def self.import_theme(url, user = Discourse.system_user, private_key: nil)
-    importer = GitImporter.new(url, private_key: private_key)
+    importer = ThemeStore::GitImporter.new(url, private_key: private_key)
     importer.import!
 
     theme_info = JSON.parse(importer["about.json"])
@@ -32,19 +57,19 @@ class RemoteTheme < ActiveRecord::Base
   end
 
   def update_remote_version
-    importer = GitImporter.new(remote_url, private_key: private_key)
+    importer = ThemeStore::GitImporter.new(remote_url, private_key: private_key)
     importer.import!
     self.updated_at = Time.zone.now
     self.remote_version, self.commits_behind = importer.commits_since(remote_version)
   end
 
-  def update_from_remote(importer = nil)
+  def update_from_remote(importer = nil, skip_update: false)
     return unless remote_url
     cleanup = false
 
     unless importer
       cleanup = true
-      importer = GitImporter.new(remote_url, private_key: private_key)
+      importer = ThemeStore::GitImporter.new(remote_url, private_key: private_key)
       importer.import!
     end
 
@@ -99,10 +124,13 @@ class RemoteTheme < ActiveRecord::Base
 
     self.license_url ||= theme_info["license_url"]
     self.about_url ||= theme_info["about_url"]
-    self.remote_updated_at = Time.zone.now
-    self.remote_version = importer.version
-    self.local_version = importer.version
-    self.commits_behind = 0
+
+    if !skip_update
+      self.remote_updated_at = Time.zone.now
+      self.remote_version = importer.version
+      self.local_version = importer.version
+      self.commits_behind = 0
+    end
 
     update_theme_color_schemes(theme, theme_info["color_schemes"])
 
diff --git a/lib/git_importer.rb b/lib/theme_store/git_importer.rb
similarity index 97%
rename from lib/git_importer.rb
rename to lib/theme_store/git_importer.rb
index 55bf47e826b..d65d84e9a6c 100644
--- a/lib/git_importer.rb
+++ b/lib/theme_store/git_importer.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-class GitImporter
+module ThemeStore; end
+
+class ThemeStore::GitImporter
 
   attr_reader :url
 
diff --git a/lib/theme_store/tgz_importer.rb b/lib/theme_store/tgz_importer.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1c651744b9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/theme_store/tgz_importer.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+module ThemeStore; end
+
+class ThemeStore::TgzImporter
+
+  attr_reader :url
+
+  def initialize(filename)
+    @temp_folder = "#{Pathname.new(Dir.tmpdir).realpath}/discourse_theme_#{SecureRandom.hex}"
+    @filename = filename
+  end
+
+  def import!
+    FileUtils.mkdir(@temp_folder)
+    Dir.chdir(@temp_folder) do
+      Discourse::Utils.execute_command("tar", "-xzvf", @filename, "--strip", "1")
+    end
+  end
+
+  def cleanup!
+    FileUtils.rm_rf(@temp_folder)
+  end
+
+  def version
+    ""
+  end
+
+  def real_path(relative)
+    fullpath = "#{@temp_folder}/#{relative}"
+    return nil unless File.exist?(fullpath)
+
+    # careful to handle symlinks here, don't want to expose random data
+    fullpath = Pathname.new(fullpath).realpath.to_s
+
+    if fullpath && fullpath.start_with?(@temp_folder)
+      fullpath
+    else
+      nil
+    end
+  end
+
+  def [](value)
+    fullpath = real_path(value)
+    return nil unless fullpath
+    File.read(fullpath)
+  end
+
+end
diff --git a/script/theme-watcher b/script/theme-watcher
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..4d5f1da5a22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/script/theme-watcher
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env ruby
+
+require 'fileutils'
+require 'pathname'
+require 'tempfile'
+require 'securerandom'
+require 'minitar'
+require 'zlib'
+require 'find'
+require 'net/http'
+require 'net/http/post/multipart'
+require 'uri'
+require 'listen'
+
+# Work in progress theme watcher for Discourse
+#
+# Monitor a theme directory locally and automatically keep it in sync with Discourse
+
+def usage
+  puts "Usage: theme-watcher DIR SITE"
+  exit 1
+end
+
+$api_key = ENV['DISCOURSE_API_KEY']
+$dir = ARGV[1]
+$site = ARGV[2]
+
+if !$api_key
+  puts "No API key found in DISCOURSE_API_KEY env var enter your API key: "
+  $api_key = gets
+end
+
+if !File.exist?("#{$dir}/about.json")
+  puts "No about.json file found in #{dir}!"
+  puts
+  usage
+end
+
+def compress_dir(gzip, dir)
+  sgz = Zlib::GzipWriter.new(File.open(gzip, 'wb'))
+  tar = Archive::Tar::Minitar::Output.new(sgz)
+
+  Dir.chdir(dir + "/../") do
+    Find.find(File.basename(dir)) do |x|
+      Find.prune if File.basename(x)[0] == ?.
+      next if File.directory?(x)
+
+      Minitar.pack_file(x, tar)
+    end
+  end
+ensure
+  tar.close
+  sgz.close
+end
+
+def upload_full_theme(dir, site)
+  filename = "#{Pathname.new(Dir.tmpdir).realpath}/bundle_#{SecureRandom.hex}.tar.gz"
+  compress_dir(filename, dir)
+
+  # new full upload endpoint
+  uri = URI.parse(site + "/admin/themes/import.json?api_key=#{$api_key}")
+  http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
+  File.open(filename) do |tgz|
+
+    request = Net::HTTP::Post::Multipart.new(
+      uri.request_uri,
+      "bundle" => UploadIO.new(tgz, "application/tar+gzip", "bundle.tar.gz"),
+    )
+    response = http.request(request)
+    p response.code
+  end
+
+ensure
+  FileUtils.rm_f filename
+end
+
+upload_full_theme($dir, $site)
+
+listener = Listen.to($dir) do |modified, added, removed|
+  puts "Change detected"
+  upload_full_theme($dir, $site)
+end
+
+listener.start
+sleep
diff --git a/spec/components/theme_store/tgz_importer_spec.rb b/spec/components/theme_store/tgz_importer_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..693074a1b2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/components/theme_store/tgz_importer_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+
+# encoding: utf-8
+
+require 'rails_helper'
+require 'theme_store/tgz_importer'
+
+describe ThemeStore::TgzImporter do
+  before do
+    @temp_folder = "#{Pathname.new(Dir.tmpdir).realpath}/discourse_theme_#{SecureRandom.hex}"
+  end
+
+  after do
+    FileUtils.rm_rf @temp_folder
+  end
+
+  it "can import a simple theme" do
+
+    FileUtils.mkdir(@temp_folder)
+
+    Dir.chdir(@temp_folder) do
+      FileUtils.mkdir('test/')
+      File.write("test/hello.txt", "hello world")
+      FileUtils.mkdir('test/a')
+      File.write("test/a/inner", "hello world inner")
+
+      `tar -cvzf test.tar.gz test/*`
+    end
+
+    importer = ThemeStore::TgzImporter.new("#{@temp_folder}/test.tar.gz")
+    importer.import!
+
+    expect(importer["hello.txt"]).to eq("hello world")
+    expect(importer["a/inner"]).to eq("hello world inner")
+
+    importer.cleanup!
+  end
+end