diff --git a/validate_manifest.sh b/validate_manifest.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..d66c384
--- /dev/null
+++ b/validate_manifest.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Copyright 2018-present Open Networking Foundation
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# validate_manifest.sh
+#
+# Validates the repo manifest, per the DTD format given here:
+# https://gerrit.googlesource.com/git-repo/+/master/docs/manifest-format.txt
+
+echo "Verifying default.xml using manifest.dtd"
+
+# check that xmllint is available
+if ! [ -x "$(command -v xmllint)" ]
+then
+  echo "Please install 'xmllint' to use this script"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# run the verification
+xmllint --noout --dtdvalid manifest.dtd default.xml
+status=$?
+
+if [ $status -ne 0 ]
+then
+  echo "FAILURE: default.xml isn't valid - exit status: $status"
+  exit $status
+else
+  echo "SUCCESS: default.xml validated correctly"
+  exit 0
+fi