diff --git a/debian/manage_debconf.pl b/debian/manage_debconf.pl
new file mode 100755

index 0000000000..be8ed32050
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/manage_debconf.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+#
+# Interface between our config files and the debconf database.
+#
+# Usage:
+#
+#   manage_debconf.pl <action>
+#
+# where <action> can be:
+#
+#   read:    read the configuration from the yaml into debconf
+#   update:  update the yaml config according to the debconf database
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
+use Debconf::Client::ConfModule (qw/get set/);
+
+# map from the name of a setting in our .yaml file to the relevant debconf
+# setting.
+my %MAPPINGS=(
+    server_name => 'matrix-synapse/server-name',
+    report_stats => 'matrix-synapse/report-stats',
+);
+
+# enable debug if dpkg --debug
+my $DEBUG = $ENV{DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_DEBUG};
+
+sub read_config {
+    my @files = @_;
+
+    foreach my $file (@files)  {
+        print STDERR "reading $file\n" if $DEBUG;
+
+        open my $FH, "<", $file or next;
+
+        # rudimentary parsing which (a) avoids having to depend on a yaml library,
+        # and (b) is tolerant of yaml errors
+        while($_ = <$FH>) {
+            while (my ($setting, $debconf) = each %MAPPINGS) {
+                $setting = quotemeta $setting;
+                if(/^${setting}\s*:(.*)$/) {
+                    my $val = $1;
+
+                    # remove leading/trailing whitespace
+                    $val =~ s/^\s*//;
+                    $val =~ s/\s*$//;
+
+                    # remove surrounding quotes
+                    if ($val =~ /^"(.*)"$/ || $val =~ /^'(.*)'$/) {
+                        $val = $1;
+                    }
+
+                    print STDERR ">> $debconf = $val\n" if $DEBUG;
+                    set($debconf, $val);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        close $FH;
+    }
+}
+
+sub update_config {
+    my @files = @_;
+
+    my %substs = ();
+    while (my ($setting, $debconf) = each %MAPPINGS) {
+        my @res = get($debconf);
+        $substs{$setting} = $res[1] if $res[0] == 0;
+    }
+
+    foreach my $file (@files) {
+        print STDERR "checking $file\n" if $DEBUG;
+
+        open my $FH, "<", $file or next;
+
+        my $updated = 0;
+
+        # read the whole file into memory
+        my @lines = <$FH>;
+
+        while (my ($setting, $val) = each %substs) {
+            $setting = quotemeta $setting;
+
+            map {
+                if (/^${setting}\s*:\s*(.*)\s*$/) {
+                    my $current = $1;
+                    if ($val ne $current) {
+                        $_ = "${setting}: $val\n";
+                        $updated = 1;
+                    }
+                }
+            } @lines;
+        }
+        close $FH;
+
+        next unless $updated;
+
+        print STDERR "updating $file\n" if $DEBUG;
+        open $FH, ">", $file or die "unable to update $file";
+        print $FH @lines;
+        close $FH;
+    }
+}
+
+
+my $cmd = $ARGV[0];
+
+my $read = 0;
+my $update = 0;
+
+if (not $cmd) {
+    die "must specify a command to perform\n";
+} elsif ($cmd eq 'read') {
+    $read = 1;
+} elsif ($cmd eq 'update') {
+    $update = 1;
+} else {
+    die "unknown command '$cmd'\n";
+}
+
+my @files = (
+    "/etc/matrix-synapse/homeserver.yaml",
+    glob("/etc/matrix-synapse/conf.d/*.yaml"),
+);
+
+if ($read) {
+    read_config(@files);
+} elsif ($update) {
+    update_config(@files);
+}